Our First Meeting (SYOC CLOSED)
by Ohurie
Summary: Eighteen Ultimates finally decided to meet after spending their time getting to know each other through a server online. The group expects to meet and have fun, to strengthen their bond and forge relationships which could last forever... That is nothing but a dream, for the group instead finds themselves trapped inside of a building and forced to participate in a killing game.
1. Preview and Form

It was finally the day.

Though I never actually met any of them outside of the Internet, this was the day I will have met them.

Them… The people I've befriended online on the local chat room server for Ultimates around the world.

Seventeen people. From a simple click from a group's chat room link, I was met with seventeen Ultimates who welcomed me with open arms. Ten who were inside of the server before me, and seven after me.

We were always awkward around each other at first, but that was a given. I know that after a while we would get along fine and be comfortable around one another, and that happened.

All eighteen of us became close. We were friends. We were like family.

That is why we felt comfortable enough to meet each other in real life.

We were all on board with the idea of meeting each other in real life. I was nervous about this idea at first, but soon that nervousness became excitement. I really wanted to meet these people who I now labeled as family and friends.

-That, right there, is the reason why I am now standing in front of the Big Ben, waiting alone where people pass by.

I know that the Ultimates I've befriended were from around the world. It was only a coincidence that we all spoke English, though at the same time I figure we were able to speak English because of that language slowly taking over the world.

I would know this because I am educated in this field.

 **-Archie King, the Ultimate Editor-**

I was standing near the Big Ben for about an hour already. I'm a bit too excited over meeting my online friends, but honestly I couldn't care less. Even if the weather was cold and chilly, I stayed where I was seating.

Seventeen people… I will be meeting with seventeen people.

We had planned to meet at my country, the United Kingdom, right near the Big Ben. Afterwards we were to host ourselves a huge party inside of a building nearby. I had the place reserved for the night, and after that we would check out at a nearby hotel.

We had many things planned…

We had many things planned, but I never thought that murder would be in one of them.

* * *

Rules:

1.) No recycling of characters. I do not mind if the character had been rejected or sent to a dead story however.

2.) Like always, no Mary or Gary Stus either.

3.) You are allowed to submit up to three characters. At most, however, I will accept two

if the submissions are not enough from each individual.

4.) I do not want canon talents from the DR games.

5.) Send characters through PM. I do not want any characters sent through reviews.

The deadline will be in about two weeks from now, around August 21. If you do need an extension though please PM me ahead of time, around at least two days before the deadline. If needed, the deadline will be extended if there aren't as many submissions.

* * *

Form:

Anything that has a * means it is optional. However, it is most likely best to do so as it increases your character's chances of landing a spot on the roster.

Name: (First, then last.)

Nickname: *

Age: (15-19.)

Gender: (Female or male.)

Sexuality: (I'm fine with anything here.)

Talent: (No canon talents, please.)

Ethnicity: (You can choose anything you want as long as it is real.)

Nationality: (You can choose anything you want, as long as your character is from a real country. Please take note that the cast here will be speaking English though.)

Appearance: (Include height and weight here as well.)

Clothing: (Your character could be wearing anything they want as they are supposed to be meeting their friends. Casual, but formal enough for the occasion.)

Personality:

Backstory:

Important People: *

Mannerisms/Quirks: *

Speech: (Describe how they speak and list a few quotes here.)

Secrets: (At least one.)

Likes: (At least three.)

Dislikes: (Same as above.)

Hobbies: (Same as above.)

Preferred Role: (Survivor, murderer, victim, or mastermind. There are no guarantees though, but your input will be minded.) *

Mastermind Reasoning: (If you want your character to be a mastermind, reason it here.) *

Motives to Kill: (At least one.)

Reaction to Killing Game:

Reaction to Body Announcement: (Both guilty and innocent.)

Reaction to Discovering Body: (Same as above.)

Role in Investigation: (Same as above.)

Role in Trial: (Same as above.)

Reaction to Being Accused: (Same as above.)

Reaction to Being Caught:

FTE Ideas: *

Possible Character Development Ideas: *

Others: *

* * *

MALES

1\. Archie King - Ultimate Editor (Me)

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

FEMALES

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

* * *

Submissions:

x19 Males

x18 Females

* * *

x13 Japanese

x3 American

x2 German

x1 Czech

x3 French

x2 Canadian

x2 Australian

x1 New Zealander

x1 Italian

x1 Norwegian

x5 British

x1 Greek

x1 Scottish

x1 Russian

* * *

x1 Fisherman

x1 Ghostwriter

x1 Actuary

x1 Veterinarian

x3 Engineer

x1 Juggler

x1 Judge

x1 Doll Maker

x1 Prison Warden

x1 Piercer

x1 Chess Player

x1 Host

x1 Interrogator

x1 Stand-Up Comedian

x1 Violinist

x1 Tailor

x2 Toymaker

x1 Billiards Player

x2 DJ

x1 Mythologist

x1 ?

x1 General

x1 Fashion Designer

x1 Animal Specialist

x1 Cheerleader

x1 Circus Performer

x1 Internet Personality

x1 Biologist

x1 F-1 Racer

x1 Boomerang Specialist

x1 Butcher

x1 Skateboarder

x1 Matchmaker


	2. Roster

Here is the official roster. I hope you all understand that it was difficult to choose the characters which will be making it into this roster.

 **MALES:**

1\. Archie King, Ultimate Editor (Me)

2\. Sujin Park, Ultimate Veterinarian (RioA)

3\. Elijah Blackward, Ultimate Piercer (PainX65)

4\. Ryokichi Kuroshita, Ultimate ? (R3dLuv3Singin)

5\. Hugh Davies, Ultimate Fashion Designer (Treeja)

6\. Konstantin Sokolov, Ultimate Butcher (tobi-is-an-artist-too)

7\. Zenjiro Oshiro, Ultimate Stand Up Comedian (Orlando Butler)

8\. Oliver Jones, Ultimate Boomerang Specialist (HyperCubeWolf)

9\. Saburo Kurosawa, Ultimate Interrogator (emberblitz321)

 **FEMALES:**

1\. Shizuna Hitokokaji, Ultimate Ghostwriter (liammarklh88)

2\. Kudosu Kudo, Ultimate Actuary (Shyjoker)

3\. Giselle Roux, Ultimate Doll Maker (Ziggymia123)

4\. Calla Muldoon, Ultimate Chess Player (TheRoseShadow21)

5\. Lisa Castellanos, Ultimate Mythologist (Abitat Eco)

6\. Petra König, Ultimate Internet Personality (mayurie)

7\. Nova Desmarais, Ultimate Cheerleader (Crimson Spider Lily)

8\. Katya Salvatici, Ultimate Skateboarder (Spirit of The Witching Woods)

9\. Aki Hei-Ryung, Ultimate Judge (Mango-senpai)


	3. Prologue (Part 1)

**Prologue (Part 1)**

* * *

I believe that the first time I met my Internet friends was about half a year ago.

There wasn't any particular reason why I joined the server. I was done with my work and wanted to try something new. Joining a server online was a new experience for me at that time, and being around Ultimates-my own kin-I wasn't exactly sure if they'd accept someone like me. Some Ultimates I knew at my school weren't exactly the most humble, so I hesitated for a while before joining.

Honestly, looking back on the past, it was silly of me to believe that I wouldn't be accepted. Not all Ultimates were as brute and superficial as those I knew of, and the people inside the server were the opposite of those I've met.

The chilly air made me shiver. Despite knowing the risk of sickness, I wanted to meet my friends as soon as possible.

It was winter break. Everyone had break around this time- what better way to spend the winter break's first week than to finally meet your faraway friends?

We're supposed to spend a week in London. Though it was too short to a few of my friends' liking, we all agreed with it. A week was better than a day.

I noticed there were a few white hairs on my sleeves. They must've came from my cat. The rascal must've slept on top of my clothes again.

I sighed. I waved the hairs off from my sleeves, then readjusting my turtleneck. It was warm around my neck and contrasted the coldness of the air.

The Big Ben struck nine.

I saw a few pedestrians passing by. Children were tightly holding their parents' hands, coworkers discussing about the recent news.

"Have you read the latest edition of Dreamer's Reality? It's sooo good!"

I noticed two girls who were walking down the street, excitement in their faces.

"There's another book? Don't spoil me! I haven't read it yet!"

The duo passed by as I easily recalled what exactly was the latest edition of Dreamer's Reality was.

I remembered the author who wrote the book. I was close to that person, being the editor. She was excited to release her latest volume from this series, and was more than excited when I took upon the role as her editor.

I hope that this new volume would exceed her fans' expectations.

 _Ring! Ring!_

My phone was ringing. I reached into my pocket and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Archie!"

I smiled. That person's voice was familiar. "Hello! Is that you, Calla?"

Calla was one of my friends that I will be meeting. From what I've learned from her during messages and voice chats, she's friendlier than most of the people in the server. I'm not being mean or rude, just measuring based on my subjective standpoint. She's really open and sweet, to put it in a few words. She was someone that the others and I all found ourselves comfortable speaking to.

Her friendly voice continued to resonate with me. "Mhm! Are the others there already?"

I chuckled. "No, they're not. Where are you?"

"Getting out of the airport now. I'm going to call a cab right now."

"Alright. I'll see you soon then."

"Same to you!"

I ended the call, pleased. I shoved the cellphone back into my pocket.

"Oh! Is that you?"

Suddenly I heard someone calling my name. It wasn't just somebody though, but it was somebody that I've heard before.

I turned around to meet this person's face. I felt my facial muscles moving as I looked ahead.

A girl was excitedly walking towards me, somebody behind her. I observed the duo's appearances, smile never fading from my face.

The person behind the girl was a boy. It was a boy who was wearing a fashionable black cat flu mask, hiding most of his face. The hood over his head did not help expose his identity, nonetheless the fur that helped cover his locks of hair. Other than his face that was hard to look at, however, I saw that he was wearing a dark red parka, inside that a simple white collared shirt with a black tie around the collar. On the bottom he wore black, neat pants. There were black, leather shoes on his feet which, in my opinion, gave him slightly a professional atmosphere to him. I was not able to decipher more than his clothing because of how much he hid his face. I wondered if this was intentional or not.

My focus shifted to the girl whose voice I recognized. The girl who was walking happily over to me had long, pink hair that was tied in a high side ponytail. That ponytail went down to her mid back. Other than her hair I noticed her eyes which were a cheerful, orange color. I also noticed her slender and thin frame, then the freckles that covered her cheeks. She was wearing a rose gold sleeveless romper with cutouts in the ribs, then a white leather jacket that rested on her shoulder. On her legs and feet, she wore black thigh-high heeled boots.

The girl bounced over to my side and saluted, her painted gold fingernails noticeable in my face. "Heeey, are you Archie? Mr. Editor guy, right?"

I smiled. Her cheerful and bubbly voice made me completely sure of who she was. "Yeah, that's me. Judging from your voice, can I assume you're Nova, Ms. Cheerleader herself?"

The girl, Nova, gasped. Her hands slapped her cheeks. "That's completely right! Good job, Archie!"

Nova Desmarais was one of the first people who took over the server. From what I was able to gather from the last few months I spent with the group online, Nova was one of the creators of the server, if not titled the creator of the server herself. I wasn't surprised by this information in all honesty. Nova's optimistic and cheerful, sociable and friendly- I was not at all shocked that she took charge of this group. Though I cannot deny that her being the Ultimate Cheerleader didn't skew my perception of her, I knew everyone in the server were nice to a degree.

"Ahem! Anyways!" Nova suddenly turned to the boy behind her, toothly smiling as she urged the hooded person over. "Introduce yourself!"

"Seriously…?" The boy turned his head away as Nova stepped back, bouncing in place. Unable to refuse, he grumbled under his breath as he walked to me. "Hi."

I smiled back. "Hello, so who are you?"

The boy grabbed at his hood as he looked up at me. His expression, although mostly unseeable, looked irritated. "Sujin."

I instantly recognized the boy's name. He was the Ultimate Veterinarian. "Hello then! It's nice to finally meet you."

"Uhuh." Sujin continued to hide in his hood. He quickly stepped away as Nova sighed. She quickly skipped over to me.

"I met him while we're on the plane," she explained, perky in her voice, "He doesn't look like much of a talker right now, huh? But that's nothing to worry about! He said he's tired over a trip, that's all!"

I frowned. "A trip?"

"Why're you telling him that?" Sujin suddenly stared at the duo. I was suddenly able to see that his eyes were dark purple. "It's not like my life's that fucking important."

If I remembered correctly, Sujin was usually the one who'd cause discord between the group. He has no qualms over inserting his opinion in anything. He's always dry and dark in his humor, unable to censor anything he said.

"Did you have to do something before coming here?" I asked. I was completely curious.

"What does it matter to you?" Sujin glared at me for a while, but dropped it as soon as he noticed Nova was eyeing him worriedly. "Tch. Yeah, it was a business trip. My boss told me that I should try taking an internship in Canada."

"That's nice!" I nodded my head. "It gives you experience in the workforce."

"No, not really." Sujin pouted. He was tugging at the fur around his hood, a few strands of hair falling softly to the ground. I noticed that the strands of hair that crept from the hood was a silvery color. "The people there just took advantage of me. Assholes."

"Uh…" I wasn't sure how to respond to that, quickly gesturing to Nova for help.

"Look at the bright side, Sujin!" Nova was clapping her hands together at a one-two beat. "You still got the work experience regardless!"

"Fucking hell." Sujin frowned. "I guess…"

"Exactly! That's the spirit, Sujin!" Nova happily slapped Sujin on the back. She then stopped afterwards, looking around the area. "The others aren't here yet?"

"Not yet." I smiled. "I'm sure they'll be here soon. I just called Calla."

"Oh!" Nova's face brightened. "She's gonna be here soon?"

"She just got off the airport. She said she'll take a taxi here."

"Hmph. Better." Sujin was grumbling. "If everyone's not here I'm going to be pissed…"

Nova grinned. "You're excited, aren't you?"

"I-I'm not!" Sujin quickly lowered the hood down and covered his eyes. "I just don't want someone to flake out on us like a fucking coward, that's all."

"Uhuh." Nova chuckled. She completely didn't believe the veterinarian.

"So how are you two?" I asked. I really wanted to engage in small talk with the duo, and that's especially because I have now met them in person.

"How kind of you!" Nova bounced at my words. Her ponytail jumped up and down to her beats. "I'm doing great! I'm really excited that we're finally meeting."

I smiled. "How's the flight?"

Nova laughed. "The same as always. Long, but worth the wait!"

"Pfft, you're too fucking optimistic." Sujin was mumbling under his breath, however it was loud enough that I can hear it. "The food there sucks and the goddamn flight attendants won't even let me check on the pets down in the cargo. What if they're starving for crying out loud!"

Sujin always tended to rant to himself, and that mainly pertained to his occupation as a veterinarian. He's toned it down after a few people like Nova and Calla told him that it stressed him out too often, but I still remembered that he tended to repeat himself over and over again over our conversations.

His care for animals looked though as if he prioritized them more than humans, if I had to admit.

"Don't worry! I'm sure they're fine." Nova took the initiative to calm our friend, friendly as always. She waved her hands around in front of his face. "Think happy thoughts! Happy!"

"Ugh, whatever." Sujin scoffed, backing off from Nova's personal space. "Sometimes people are fucking stupid anyways. Can't be helped."

"Mhm! But the world's becoming better!" Nova swayed side to side. "Besides, let's just think about today! We're going to be meeting with everyone."

"Exactly." I jumped into the conversation eagerly. "I'm sure we'll have a good time this week."

The cheerleader threw her hands to the air. "Yup yup! Exactly!"

"Ugh." Sujin gritted his teeth. "Fine. I'll take your word for it then, but only because I'm here anyways."

Nova and I shared a look. It was completely obvious that Sujin treasured our friendship.

Though, Nova especially. From what she told me and the others before, Sujin used to be really cold towards the group. During a time when there were only ten of us in the chat room, Sujin had fallen ill in the middle of a voice chat. He fainted, and we ended up waiting the entire night to just hear his voice. I ended up hearing Nova's confession- that Sujin was always a jerk towards the group, but he slowly opened up as more and more people joined. It pained me to hear Nova's voice cracking, nonetheless hearing the mumbles from the others, and it led me to opening up to Sujin more.

I'm just glad that Sujin's not that cold towards us anymore. Cold, but at least a little warmer.

"Anyways," I began, steering the conversation into another topic, "Have you called the others? I only got a call from Calla, so I don't know about the others. I tried messaging Ryokichi and Elijah earlier but I didn't get a response."

"If they didn't receive a response they're probably still in the airport." Sujin eyed me with a cautious gaze. "Aki texted me earlier though. She said she's coming over right now."

"Oh, Aki!" Nova clapped her hands excitedly. "I can't wait to see what she looks like!"

I laughed. "Me too. You and Sujin look nice in person. Your voices definitely fit your appearances."

"Aw, thank you!" Nova blushed, giggling. "You're handsome yourself, Archie."

"Thank you." I took the compliment kindly. "That's very sweet of you."

"Hey, are you Archie?"

Somebody was approaching me. It was a chest-lengthed black haired boy who wore a white t-shirt and a black-and-dark-purple open jacket, then black trousers and purple shoes with a bit of white on them. I also saw that the boy was wearing wire fingerless gloves, possibly for style.

"Hello," I said with a friendly wave, "Yes, I'm Archie. Who are you?"

"Oh, cool. It's finally nice to meet you." The dark green eyed boy smiled. I saw dark purple shadows under his eyes, and a few piercings on his ears. "I'm Elijah, Ultimate Piercer."

I instantly recognized the boy's name. "Oh! You're Elijah? It's nice to meet you!"

Elijah Blackward was one of the people who joined the server after me. He made a lot of contributions in our discussions, acting as both a mediator and a big brother sort of person. He was the one who usually listened to others, allowing them to speak and waste his time. He enjoyed listening to our conversations, and we admired him for that.

"Hello! I'm Nova!" The cheerleader jumped into the mix, waving happily at the piercer. "How are you?"

Elijah smiled, relaxed. He was already comfortable in our presence. I was able to tell because of how his body was slightly slouched in a comfortable position.

"I'm doing fine," Elijah answered, "I do feel a bit of a jet lag, but it should be gone in a few days."

Nova laughed. "Yeah, same. I'm sure we'll be fine in a few hours though!" She turned to Sujin. "Go introduce yourself!"

"Ugh, fine." The veterinarian mumbled under his lips. "I'm Sujin."

Elijah nodded. "Finally nice to meet you."

"Right." Sujin hummed, "Yeah, same."

"You always told me that you wore those types of masks," the piercer began, engaging in small talk with the vet.

"Yeah, so?" Sujin's face became red, if only by a bit. "They're useful and stylish. It's a two-for-one deal."

"Dude, I know that." Elijah snickered. "I didn't expect you to actually wear it all the time though, especially in this occasion."

Sujin quickly brought his hood down. "I-I don't like showing my face, dumbass."

Nova laughed. "We can't really tell who's who without at least seeing your face though. Don't be shy!"

I recalled before we were going to meet one another that we gave each other our first names. I knew that some people would know us over our pen names-or usernames, whatever is preferred. Some people loved to browse the Internet and it was obvious that Ultimates had made a name for themselves not only outside of school, but in the Internet as well.

If we knew of one another's names and at least our basic traits (eye color, skin color, etc.), then I was sure we'd be able to differentiate ourselves from the pedestrians.

It worked so far, so I considered this a successful plan thus far.

"Novaaaaa!"

Nova's eyes widened. From the sound of the voice, it belonged to a girl that Nova recognized instantly. The cheerleader quickly turned around.

"Oh my god!" Nova threw her hands over her mouth. "Is that you?"

Running over to Nova was a tanned girl with long, undone blond hair that was tied in a ponytail. She also wore a hairband on her. Her eyes were wide set and brown, face proportional which gave her an attractive appearance. Mahogany earrings dangled from her ears and she wore a blue dress that was underneath a black-and-white checkered top. She also wore black leggings on the bottom and sandals which had a black bow tied to them. I also noticed a green handbag that the girl carried over her shoulder, and the colorful beaded bracelets on her hands. On her hands were her fingernails- I noticed that her nails were painted in black and white, alternatively.

The blonde rushed to Nova, and once the duo were in range they immediately threw their arms around one another.

"Finally! I get to see you, Calla!" Nova exclaimed. Her arms around Calla were tight. "We finally get to see each other in person!"

Calla squealed happily. "I know! We're finally here together!"

"I know right?!" The cheerleader laughed heartily.

Calla Muldoon was the Ultimate Chess Player. She came after I joined the server, and she was a lovely addition to Nova and the others- especially Nova. Friendly and kind, Calla was someone who helped us get through our problems in life. The ramblings we screamed in the server were always discussed and solved because of Calla's kindness.

Calla released her embrace around Nova. She turned to me and the others, smiled in a friendly manner, and waved. "Hello!" she greeted in what I assumed what a New Zealand accent, "If you didn't hear earlier, my name's Calla!"

"Cool," Elijah mused, smiling cooly, "Nice to finally meet you too. I'm Elijah."

Sujin grunted and tugged on his sleeves. "And I'm Sujin."

"And my name is Archie," I said, greeting Calla kindly. "It is nice to finally meet you. How was your trip?"

"It's been well!" Calla giggled. "I was able to sleep a bit while in the plane and the driver who drove the cab was really friendly to me!"

"Awesome!" Nova threw her hands up. "Great to see you doing great, Calla!"

The blonde laughed, "Aw, thanks Nova!"

Nova and Calla were, to put it in a few words, best friends. Their personalities mixed well together and with how cheerful the duo are, they instantly had hit it off the instant the met one another online. Both enjoyed a good challenge and were supportive of everyone around them- it shouldn't be a surprise that the duo would've hit it off so well.

Calla bounced in her step. "How long have you waited here, Archie?"

"Ah, that." I chuckled and recounted the time. "Sujin and Nova came here after you and I called each other. For when I came here and waited-though I wouldn't count my being walking there-about an hour?"

"Really?" Her brown eyes sparkled with shock. "You're that excited to meet us, huh!"

"Of course I am," I answered, smiling at Calla, "It's my first time meeting you all personally. I don't want to leave you all alone here either. You guys could get lost."

"Don't underestimate my abilities!" Calla suddenly exclaimed, determination in her eyes. She bumped her fists together. "Even if you weren't here, I'd definitely know my way around the city!"

Elijah heaved an amused sigh. "Calla, don't be too cocky."

"Silly, I'm not." The chess player shoved Elijah to the side playfully. "I'm just being honest."

I watched Elijah and Calla gleefully. I noticed the duo were having fun joking with one another, Calla threw her fists up while Elijah rolled his eyes. I almost had forgotten that the duo were pretty close as well.

Ever since the duo learned that the other were relatively close to one another, they became much more friendlier with each other. They usually poked fun at each other's country, mainly Elijah. Calla loved throwing words that came from Maori at him as well, and I assumed that was to confuse him.

However, in all honesty, people like Nova and Calla were bound to be more sociable and friendlier in terms with other people. They loved to chat and hang out, and so it wasn't a surprise to me that we all held a strong connection with the duo.

"Hello? Are you here for the meetup?"

I looked behind to find a girl staring at me cautiously, her light blue eyes scanning and looking at each person.

The girl who approached me had a fair complexion, dark freckles dotting her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. She had chocolate brown hair that fell in tight, bouncy ringlets past her shoulders. The dress that the girl was wearing reached the ground and was made with dark purple, black floral designs on it as well. The sleeves on her dress ended at her elbows and has a conservative neckline that came up to the sides of her neck. When I took a closer look at her upper body I noticed the purple nail polish on her fingernails- she must've painted them in correspondence to her dress. It looked like what she wore on the bottom were black boots, though it was hard for me to tell.

"Yes, that's right." I politely eyed the girl. "My name's Archie, and you are?"

"Ah, so I finally made it." The brunette clasped her hands together. "Greetings, my name is Giselle Roux, the Ultimate Doll Maker. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

"Oh, Giselle!" Nova suddenly poked into the conversation. "Nice to finally meet you!"

I chuckled. "Right, it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance as well, Giselle."

The doll maker nodded her head and rubbed her fingers. "I am sorry that I have came here late. I accidentally lost my way in the crowd a few minutes earlier."

"That's fine, that's fine!" The cheerleader exclaimed. She smiled at the brunette. "Most of us aren't here yet anyways!"

"Don't you live in France though?" Elijah asked. Giselle nodded, prompting him to speak further. "I'm guessing you've never been to England, at least for long?"

Giselle sighed. "My apologies for that. I am the same as you all."

"That's fine," Calla commented, "I'm sure most of us haven't been to England except for Archie."

"That's because I live here." I rolled my eyes. "It's fine though. I'm sure you're not the only person who would find themselves lost here."

The doll maker only nodded her head.

"Have you seen the others while you're lost?" Sujin suddenly asked, staring at the brunette with steady dark purple irises. "I hope they're not on the planes still."

Giselle was silent.

The vet grumbled underneath his flu mask. "Giselle, you spacing off again?"

"Oh." The doll maker blinked. She turned to Sujin. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

Dozing off into space was a quirk of Giselle's. Ever since Giselle joined the server online we've noticed how she tended to space off during calls. I knew she didn't mean any harm in spacing off, though it usually ended up with me wondering if Giselle slept much or not. She was always delicate and rigorous in her work making dolls, and putting so and so together- I assumed Giselle was the type of person to not take rests.

"You always do this," Sujin mumbled. He shook his head however and continued, "So, have you seen anyone familiar coming here? Has anyone texted you yet?"

"No," the brunette answered, vacant. "I remember that Ryokichi messaged the group chat a moment ago."

Sujin's eyes widened and he reached down to grab his phone. "Shit, really?"

I heard Giselle's words and took out my phone. I opened up the phone to the server, and as Giselle mentioned Ryokichi had messaged us.

 _(_ _KichiBoi_ _: I'm with Shizuna and Kudosu. I bumped into them after getting out of the plane, and we're just getting through the airport. Hopefully we'll be there soon.)_

"They're still in the airport?" I raised. I closed my phone and put it back in my pockets. "Hopefully they aren't too far from where we are."

Elijah chuckled. "Better than being in the flight."

"True." I smiled. "Good point."

Sujin frowned and turned to Nova. "Since when the hell did Ryokichi's name become KichiBoi?"

Nova grinned childishly. "I was a bit bored while in the taxi. It's an affectionate nickname though!"

"Nova, you sly girl!" Calla giggled. "What nickname did you give me?"

The cheerleader immediately became excited and opened her phone. Calla swooned over to her side. "You wanna check?"

Elijah snorted as he looked at his phone. "I am somehow not surprised that Giselle's name is Gazelle."

Giselle's light blue eyes widened and she immediately covered her lips, hiding her expression.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't tease her, guys," I said, although I was merely joking, "Is it really Nova who's coming up with these names?"

"What the hell?!" Sujin was freaking out. "Why is my nickname SujaJuice?! I am not a drink!"

"Chill, dude," Elijah grabbed Sujin by the hood, however his lips were curled to a teasing smile. "It's a nice nickname."

Nova suddenly turned and winked at me. "I gave you the nickname ArchNemesis!"

"Wait wha-"

"Ooh, is that who I think it is?"

"Oh, it is!"

A commotion happened behind me. I looked at Nova and the others who were just as baffled as I was, and we turned around.

At the other side of the street was a bunch of people who were crowded around something- or someone. I wasn't able to tell what was happening and all I was able to assume was that whoever the crowd was surrounding was of importance.

Nova carried Calla on her back. Having lifted Calla up, the chess player was able to see what was happening from above.

"Hm… Looks like there's someone famous there."

"Oh, really?" Nova's eyes widened. "Who?"

"Wait, give me a sec."

Calla squinted her eyes. She continued to stare at the crowd before gasping.

"Wait a sec," the blonde mused, too energetic with her tone, "Doesn't that look like Petra?"

"Petra?" Nova frowned. "Is it?"

"Yeah… I think so!" Calla nodded again. "Yeah, I think that's Petra!"

I jumped up to catch a glimpse of Petra König, the Ultimate Video Blogger.

The video blogger had curly blond hair that reached just above her shoulders. Her eyes are downturned and clear blue, contrasting her skin which was pale. She was wearing a white t-shirt with a picture of a videotape that had the word "Action!" under it plastered on the center of the front side. She was wearing a dark red unbuttoned parka over the shirt, the hood that had covered her head before now laying low and revealing her white cap that had the logo of a winking orange cat. On her bottom she wore black pants and a pair of gray slip on shoes.

Petra was one of the very first people who joined the server, one of the first few who joined the moment Nova created it. It shouldn't be a surprise that Petra was one of the first people that joined, nonetheless one of the most active. She made a name for herself because of her success online, so it wasn't a surprise to me.

"That would make sense then," I mused, stopping myself from jumping more. I folded my arms together. "Petra is famous in the Internet."

"Yeah, true." Elijah raised a finger up. He then stared at the crowd for a few seconds before turning back to me. "Uh… You think we should get her? It looks like the crowd won't be leaving anytime soon."

"Hmm…" Calla thought for a moment. "Oh! Maybe you can swoon them with your charms, Archie!"

"I will not," I said with a huff.

"Excuse me."

Suddenly, a girl had grabbed Petra by the hand, pulling her away from the crowd. It was a girl with intense gold eyes and dark red hair that fell down her collarbone and side bangs. The girl was wearing a black long sleeved dress that reached down to just above her knees which came along with a white floral collar that stuck out. On her feet were brown dress shoes, underneath white knee length socks. Turning at an angle, on the back of the girl was a white symbol of the Buddhist Dharma Wheel.

"You are bothering my friend," the redhead began. She fiercely looked at the crowd. "Don't bother her."

"Uh…"

As the girl guided Petra away, Petra was baffled. The blonde was unsure of what to say, being dragged as the redhead noticed me and the others. She immediately walked to our side.

"I didn't have to be saved," Petra began, eyeing the girl. "Who… Who are you anyways?"

"Oh, right. I didn't introduce myself." The redhead eyed me. "You're Archie, right? I'm assuming the others here are here for the meeting, correct?"

"Correct," I answered, also having noticed the crowd from the back dispersing. "Who are you?"

"Introductions. Ah, yes." The girl folded her arms. "My name is Aki Hei-Ryung, Ultimate Judge."

Aki was one of the first people who arrived on the server. If I remembered it correctly, she was the fifth person to join the server after Nova created it. She wasn't active on the site as much as Nova or Petra were, but she still came into the server to give us advice and help on many different topics. Aki was usually the one who threw intellect at us, so we assumed she was like a parent to a lot of us.

"Oh, Aki!" Nova immediately approached the judge. "My name's Nova! Nice to finally meet you."

Aki nodded. "Likewise."

The cheerleader giggled and turned to Petra. "Nice to finally meet you as well! I'm glad we get to see each other today!"

"Yeah…" Petra eyed Nova cautiously. A lazy yawn escaped her. "I'm still sleepy from the trip… Jet lag…"

Sujin scoffed. "Jet lag's a bitch."

Calla saluted the two girls. "My name is Calla! Pleasure to meet you two!"

Aki acknowledged the chess player's words in an instant.

"Hopefully you aren't that tired," Elijah said, walking over to Petra. "I'm Elijah, if you hadn't guessed already. What's up?"

"Oh." Petra smiled, if not a small one. "Uh… I'm doing well."

"You sure?" The black haired boy asked. "You said you were tired."

The blonde pouted. "No… that was from the jet lag…"

Elijah and Petra were on friendly terms with each other. Elijah, usually the listener, always was willing to hear what Petra had to say. He was always the one who cheered Petra on in what she did, and in return Petra looked up to him as someone she can depend on. I was glad that Petra had someone she can trust since I knew she was easily irritable at times.

I was worried because Petra wasn't the type of person to accept loss so easily. She was, to put it bluntly, a sore loser. She hated to lose, and she always ended up annoying others in the process. Whenever we played a game and someone else ended up being the winner, Petra would whine and complain about it. She would pout and make excuses, claiming that the person was either cheating or her luck wasn't the best today. This ended up causing a few people to run away whenever we decided to play a game. Sujin ended up yelling back at her a while back, and although it was only a few months back, he still refused to even mention the idea of them playing a game. Even people like Giselle and Aki stayed back because of her constant whining.

To see Petra and Elijah getting along, then, made me relieved.

"Are the others not here yet?" Aki asked, staring at me.

I shook my head. "No. Ryokichi's with Shizuna and Kudosu. They should be coming here soon. I'm not sure about the others."

"Are we going to stay in this weather the whole time?" Giselle suddenly asked. She cautiously looked at me. "Some of us might get cold here."

"True…" I cupped my chin. "Hm, maybe we can wait down the street? There's a good cafe there that I know of."

Petra's eyes slightly opened. "... Is there?"

"Wait, really?" Calla popped out from behind. "Why didn't you tell us this, Archie?"

"I was going to bring us all there when we meet, but Giselle brought up a good point that we might be cold out here if we stayed longer, nonetheless sick."

"Let's go then!" Nova threw her hands up, her pink hair bouncing up. "Let's see if English pastries and hot chocolate taste good!"

"I'm fine with that," Aki said, answering my question before I even asked it. "We can rest there."

"I'll tell the others in the group chat then," Elijah said and began texting in his phone.

Sujin slowly turned my way. "I am a bit hungry."

That was settled. We made our way down the street and walked to the cafe.

I hoped that the rest of the others will find us easily there.

I hoped that the others will be safe and without even realizing it, I and the others got completely rid of the idea that any harm will come to us.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for taking a long time to get this chapter out. I've been hit with a few medical issues and real life problems, but everything should be fine now. The prologue will probably run at a slow pace because I want to introduce the dynamics of the characters and the setting a bit, so it may take a few more parts for the prologue to be down and reach the first chapter. Hopefully you won't mind the slow pace for the prologue. After the prologue the pace should run faster.**

 **Thank you for all your kind words in the reviews as well! They mean a lot to me. I hope I won't fail the expectations you have for me and this story.**


	4. Prologue (Part 2)

We were now inside the cafe. Everyone had bought something to eat or drink, and we were crowded around a table.

"This is good," commented Giselle. She was eating into a blueberry scone.

Sujin rolled his eyes. "If a place had bad food and drinks then it wouldn't be open."

"Of course it wouldn't!" Nova grinned at Sujin who eyed her curiously. She bit into a scone that she had bought alongside Giselle, saying, "The food here tastes amazing, Archie!"

I nodded. "It does. An old client of mine used to go here all the time. She's living in Zurich now though."

"Ooh, interesting," Calla whistled. She leaned over to my side and wiggled her eyebrows, continuing, "Please tell us more about her, Archie."

"She's just a client." I laughed. "She moved to Zurich because of personal reasons. I feel like it's rude of me to speak about her reasons specifically though, sorry."

"Yeah, that's fine!" the chess player exclaimed with a giggle. "What book did she write?"

"Oh!" I felt my face brightened. "She made _Love and Justice_."

"Oh wow!" Calla gasped. She threw her hands to the air. "Really, mate? I read that book last year! It's a really good book!"

"Yeah, I know right?" I felt a surge of confidence inside my body. My dimples were stuck in place. "She has a natural talent for writing. She told me she first started writing short stories when she was five, and now she's a full-time novelist!"

Calla's blond hair bounced to her movements. "And you're her editor! That's really amazing, Archie."

"Haha! Nothing of the like!" I cried out. "She had a natural talent for writing, and I'm just here to make sure she won't make any silly mistakes. She's the one who deserves all the credit, not me!"

"Really?" Aki looked at me suddenly. "Are you sure you wouldn't want to receive some credit?"

"Well…"

Honestly, I hated to think about that. Receiving credit was something I would appreciate, but I tended to try to stray away from that selfish idea and stayed as selfless as possible. I would love to be complimented here and there, but credit must be given to the authors. They were the ones who even created the story, and my belief stayed with 'I'm nothing but a mere editor, and they're the ones with the talent and ideas'.

Overall, I'm usually conflicted in that mindset.

"Supposedly. Maybe at times." I resorted to answering in a vague way. I smiled at Aki who shrugged and went back to eating her pastry.

"Let's arm wrestle!" Calla exclaimed suddenly. She was grinning at us. "Whoever beats me will be able to make me buy something from them here!"

Petra jumped off of her seat. She threw her arm down and pointed at the chess player. "I wanna try! I'm going to beat you!"

"Well!" Nova laughed. "There goes Petra's competitive spirit as always!"

Elijah smiled calmly. He directed his attention to the internet personality. "Petra, don't get too ahead of yourself."

"But I'll definitely win," the curly blonde whined, pouting.

Giselle yawned. She eyed us, having tilted her head. "I'm sorry, but what are we doing again?"

Sujin groaned. "You dozed off already?"

"Sorry," the doll maker grumbled. She resorted back to biting into her scone.

"Just don't cause a ruckus," I warned. I felt a sense of great chaos ahead of us. Nonetheless, I also noticed that some employees were eyeing us strangely. I had a feeling they might kick us out sooner or later.

What I said didn't stop Petra or Calla. The duo were both competitive, and so it should've been clear that they wouldn't back down from their claims. Calla positioned her arm on the table, Petra having followed suit. The duo stared down one another before clutching hands.

Nova was in the middle of the duo. She acted as the referee, exclaiming, "Alright, ready? Go!"

I watched the duo who began putting all their strength to their arms. Their faces turned red as they tried to battle for superiority. Calla moved her arm an inch closer down to the table, but Petra forced herself to keep steady. It was a close fight, definitely.

"Vote for someone!" Nova cried. She was clapping her hands together repeatedly. "I'm going to go for Calla!"

Elijah smiled calmly, saying, "I suppose I can cheer for Petra then."

"How about we cheer for none of them?" Sujin asked. He squinted at the arm wrestling contest in front of him.

I smiled at the group. I then turned to smile at the audience inside of the cafe. They were looking at us curiously. "Erm… Don't be too loud now, guys, please."

Aki crossed her arms and said, "Don't worry. We're not being too loud."

"Haha…"

As the Ultimate Cheerleader, Nova aroused us in excitement. We were unable to keep our eyes away from the arm wrestle even if we had wanted to. Petra and Calla were fighting for their very own pride and sanity. They were grinding their teeth. Their faces turned redder than before.

However, the tables had turned.

Petra suddenly switched the tables on Calla. She exclaimed excitedly and knocked Calla's arm to the surface of the table. She panted deeply. She had won.

"Hah!" Petra jumped up to her feet. She was grinning childishly. "I won!"

"Woo," Elijah whistled. He was chuckling from where he sat. "Good job out there, Petra."

The blonde began giggling to herself.

"Interesting," Giselle said and blinked before finishing her cup of frappuccino. "That was an interesting bout."

"You think?" Sujin asked. "Then again, people are so excited over the simplest of things."

Calla was about to speak, but her eyes caught attention to the door.

Someone had walked inside, and whoever that person was caught all of our attention.

The person who had walked into the cafe was a boy who looked intimidating at first glance. He was taller than your average person, more than six feet tall. If it wasn't his height that scared us, it was the muscles and broad shoulders he had. His skin was pale. His hair was dark brown and was cut in a crew cut, however his hair is wavy and a bit thick on top. His fierce, cold eyes were a pale green color.

The boy was wearing a dark brown leather wool lined jacket over a red muscle shirt. He was wearing black jeans that are held up by a red leather belt and his shoes were black heavy boots (and I admitted they looked like they had some faded blood stains on them). Other than that was the thick silver chain necklace that he wore around his neck.

He was intimidating, to put it in a few words.

I saw Petra ducking her head down. She scooted closer to Elijah who eyed the new customer questionably. The internet personality poke her up for a second, having observed the boy again. "Who is he?"

Elijah shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe he's meeting a friend here?"

"Definitely a murderer. Maybe he's here to discuss murder," Sujin snorted with a joke. He was grinning at Petra who flinched at his words.

"You think?" Calla laughed. Her expression was immediately switched into a state of calmness. The chess player hopped off of her seat and approached the boy.

"Woah!" Nova's eyes widened. "Calla?"

Calla turned her lips into a smile. She was staring at the tall brunette. She held her hand out which caused her bracelets to make a small jingling noise. "Hello, you must be here to meet up with us, right? I'm assuming you're the Ultimate Butcher."

Aki frowned. "Butcher?"

"O-oh!" Nova threw her hands over her mouth. "No wonder his boots look like that! He's part of us!"

Giselle yawned and murmured, "Wait, really?"

The boy eyed Calla before his lips curved to a warm smile. He immediately grabbed ahold of her hand and shook it, greeting with a thick Russian accent, "H-hello! Yes, I'm the Ultimate Butcher. Uh, Konstantin Sokolov, n-nice to meet you!"

Calla nodded. "And I'm Calla Muldoon! Here, here, let's go over there. Nova and the others are right there."

The chess player led Konstantin over to the table. We all smiled and greeted him. We recognized that Konstantin was a friend of ours, and our fear died out quickly. We exchanged our names and warm welcomes before the conversation lost its formality.

"S-so the others aren't here yet?" Konstantin asked. He was looking around the table and mentally counting the people in his head.

"Not yet," I said, "Ryokichi is with Shizuna and Kudosu. The others should be getting here soon though."

The brunette smiled. "I see. W-well, I'm glad I wasn't the last one to be here then."

Giselle nodded her head. "I don't think anyone of us will judge you if you were to arrive late."

"Yes, t-that should be obvious," the butcher replied, "S-sorry about that."

"That's fine!" Nova clapped her hands. "Oh, right, and if you didn't know, I'm Nova!"

I followed forth, "And I'm Archie."

Everyone else introduced themselves to the butcher.

For starters, Konstantin was one of the last people to have joined the server. From what I've heard, he's been invited by Calla herself. Calla had reasoned that Konstantin was a nice person and wasn't always good with interacting with others, and so him being in our server was a way for him to "break the ice".

The first few days went well. Konstantin was shy and would only talk when someone mentioned him, but after those few days he became more open and was a regular to the server. He became particularly close to a few people as well, though he always tried to keep his relationships open and talk to everyone.

Overall, he was a sweet person. He would talk to support others and never keep someone in their lonesome. He would talk to a person no matter the time zone.

Nova smiled. "Anyways Konstantin, do you want to order a drink or snack? Do you have any money? I can buy some for you if you want!"

Konstantin smiled sheepishly. He shook his head and replied, "N-no, it's fine. You don't have to, Nova…"

The cheerleader shook her head, "No, no, you don't have to feel pressured! I don't mind paying for you if you don't have money! Don't worry."

Konstantin replied, "No. I-it's fine, thank you."

Calla immediately jumped over to the butcher's side. She sipped into her drink before asking, "What were you doing before coming here anyways, Kon?"

"Butchering some shit," Sujin snorted. "He was probably busy right before he had to go to the airport or something."

"That makes sense," Elijah said and nodded his head. "You do look a bit tired too, Kon. I'm guessing you were really busy, huh?"

Konstantin smiled slightly. "I was. An elderly couple r-requested me to prepare them s-some pork and c-chicken for an orphanage they run."

"Awww, really?" Calla's smile widened. "That's so sweet of them to do that! I'm guessing they were throwing a party or something?"

The brunette softened immediately after he heard what Calla said. There was genuine affection in his eyes as he said, "They were. It was for this kid's birthday. D-Dinara, was her name. I-I heard she's one of t-the recent kids w-who were brought to the o-orphanage. H-her birthday was only a few weeks after her transfer, s-so they want to t-throw a huge party for her."

"Awwww! Oh my gosh!" Calla was melting. "That is just too sweet."

I smiled. It was nice to hear what good deeds were happening around the world. When I heard what Konstantin said, I responded, "I'm glad the kids have caring people who look for them in the orphanage."

"Y-yeah," Konstantin mumbled.

The door opened again after a while passed. A tall boy (whom I assumed was over six feet tall) with brown messy hair and beady eyes walked into the cafe. He was wearing a brown outback hat over the messy hair and had a boomerang in his hands. His shirt was blue and under his cargo vest which matched with his cargo shorts and brown pointed shoes.

If I had to make an assumption, he looked like somebody who had just gone out from a safari or expedition. If not, then he was definitely outdoorsy.

However, having judged not his appearance, but now the boomerang in his hands, I instinctively knew who he was.

"Hello!" I greeted, calling the boy over from our table, "You're Oliver, right? Oliver Jones, the Ultimate Boomerang Specialist?"

The boy, Oliver, turned to my direction. A cocky grin escaped his lips and he flocked over to my direction.

"Yo!" He greeted. He bounced in his movement. He threw me and the others salutations, his hand showing forth that salute signal on the forehead. "I'm Oliver Jones, Boomerang Specialist! It's awesome to meet y'all."

His thick Australian accent stood out to me. It made me completely certain that he was apart of us, given the various voice chats we had during our time online.

"Hey! Nice to meet you!" Nova cried and bobbed her head. She scooted over to give Oliver a seat.

Oliver sat down next to the cheerleader with ease. He confidently grinned at us all, observing us from face to face. He then said, "Alright, I need to know all of your names, if you don't mind!"

We introduced ourselves once again. I laughed to myself. I already knew we would have to do this for a few more times.

Speaking about Oliver, he was also one of the last people who joined the server. He joined after a few people, namely Elijah and Ryokichi, had invited him. He easily fitted into the server. He had a humor and personality that attracted us to him, and we had the atmosphere that attracted him to us. He was just a positive ray of energy for our group.

"So anyways Oliver, tell us more about you," Elijah said. He was content from just speaking to Oliver. I assumed it was because of their similar nationalities. "How did you take up being a boomerang specialist?"

Oliver laughed. "Easy! I just follow in my dad's footsteps! I mean, I'm better than him, but y'know! Gotta go back to your roots."

Elijah was amused, snickering, "Pfft, true."

The boomerang specialist's eyes widened. He shot an excited and haughty look at us, asking (although it sounded like he was going to do it anyways if we were to say no), "Ooh, anyways, wanna hear a joke?"

Aki groaned, "Oliver, please."

Sujin's answer was an obvious snort of, "Hell no."

Oliver cleared his throat. He was ignoring the duo's responses and instead asked, "Why do kangaroos hate rainy days?"

Giselle eyed the messy-haired boy curiously, saying albeit in a lazy manner, "Why…?"

"Because their children play inside!"

I knew better than to say anything. I was silent and allowed everyone to voice my own thoughts. Better to not entertain or bemuse Oliver than to voice my own opinion compared to others', or so I believed.

"Why is it always the bad ones he tells?" Aki murmured to herself. She was shaking her head.

Petra sighed, "We need Zenjiro here, pronto."

"Someone just kill me already," Sujin groaned.

"Interesting," Giselle said, yawning.

"Mhm, very!" Nova laughed. She nodded her head and told Oliver, "You really do like telling jokes, don't you? Maybe you should take some lessons from Zenjiro!"

"Nah, don't need to." Oliver chuckled, haughty. "I'm good enough with what I have."

Sujin rolled his eyes. "Sure you are."

Calla twisted her locks of blond hair, eased with the atmosphere the group held within them. She went on to say, "I'm glad you're here nonetheless, Oliver!"

The messy-haired boy laughed. "Aren't you all?"

Before we were able to say anything more, the door opened another time. This time, however, revealed three teenagers who walked into the cafe.

The first person who walked into the cafe was a boy. From first glance I noticed that the boy had a young and childlike appearance, though I concluded that based on how short he was. His big eyes are blue and his hair was a mint green color that reached down to his neck. I noticed that his bangs were long and covered most of his left eye.

Other than that, the boy was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and teal overall pocket shorts that reached down to his knee with shoulder straps over his shoulders. Over his white shirt was a short-sleeved black hoodie jacket that covered some of what I mentioned beforehand. The jacket had paint splattered all over, and at the bottom I noticed he was wearing mismatched sneakers. For accessories he was wearing piercings on his ears, a necklace with an engraving around his neck, black fingerless gloves, and a black and turquoise colored baseball cap that was worn backwards on his head.

My first thought was to label the boy as a childish type. I was silently deducing who exactly this boy was from everyone else.

The next person to come in was a girl with dark blonde hair that was wavy and reached at the end of her waist. It was fashioned into a low hanging ponytail a dark brown hair tied with a scrunchie around her ponytail with a purple sunflower with yellow middle on the front, also two wavy bangs framing the sides of her face. Her eyes were dark purple, however what was more noticeable was the bags underneath. Other than that, she had fair white skin and was taller than the boy by a couple amount of inches. She was slender, however I noticed there were calluses on her palms.

Clothing wise, the girl was wearing a light purple straight cap top with a poetic quote written in black lettering. I realized what the quote meant immediately since as an editor I do have pride in my knowledge of novels- it was a quote from Edgar Allen Poe. Over that shirt was a light brown cape jacket that was left opened. On the bottom she was wearing a purple and yellow patterned round skirt that ended at her knees, and dark brown sneakers with white lacings and white ankle socks on the bottom. Accessory wise, she was wearing a silver necklace with a gold pen shaped pendant, a brown strap wristwatch on her left wrist, a silver charm bracelet on her right.

She was most likely someone who was an avid reader. I judged this from the Edgar Allen Poe quote on her shirt, however I also made an assumption that she was someone who used her hands a lot. Judging from the calluses on her palms, maybe she was a writer.

The last person who walked into the room was another girl. She was slim with angelic glowing white and pink blushed skin. Her auburn hair was long and silky, however what I noticed most was the two brides on her head that were styled like hearts and continued to tie into her mermaid braids. Her side bangs were curled, almost like a hoop, and I noticed that a strand of hair laid in front of her face. Her eyes are alluringly narrow and was an amethyst color.

If the boy and girl's previous designs weren't deemed as fashionable, I can tell for sure that this girl's would be labelled as so. She was wearing black shades under those amethyst eyes, body entirely covered in gold accents and chains. She was even wearing phi gold rose earrings to top off her appearance. Her shirt was beige and was under a burgundy blazer that had grid and math symbols, yellow ruffles acting as her cuffs. She was also wearing another shirt which was beige and buttoned with an orange ribbon to be seen. Her skirt was brown tulip with the second layer a pastel yellow pleated look (added with burgundy math symbols). Finally, on the bottom were her dark leather burgundy wedge boots.

From appearance alone, I safely concluded that this girl fitted the picture of a mature and wise figure. If not for her slim figure, then I concluded this from how extravagant her clothes were.

"Oh, hey there!" Elijah called out. He waved his hands that caused the trio to look over to the table. "You guys are here for the gathering too, right?"

Petra's eyes widened. She looked at Elijah and asked, "You're sure they're here for us?"

"Yeah," the piercer answered, "Given how we all described ourselves, I have a feeling I know who they are… er, if at least one of them."

I laughed. I understood what Elijah meant. I stood up from my seat and waved to the trio.

The trio murmured to one another, but walked over towards the others and I.

"Yo," the first of the group greeted. It was the boy. He was chewing gum, as I noticed he was blowing it into a bubble and popping it. "The name's Ryokichi Kuroshita, but call if Kichi if you want."

"Aah, I see." Aki sipped slowly into her mug. "You're the one who doesn't want to reveal your talent."

"Yeah," Ryokichi answered bluntly. "Got a problem with that?"

The judge shook her head, saying, "No, just noting."

Oliver jumped up from his seat and immediately reached a hand out to the mint green-haired boy. "What's up! Nice to finally meet you!"

Ryokichi shook hands with the boomerang specialist. He was looking at the boomerang in Oliver's hands. "I'm guessing you're Oliver? Cool. Nice to meet you."

The boomerang specialist laughed loudly and cried, "Yup! Same with you, dude!"

Ryokichi chuckled. He was now engaged in small talk with Oliver.

Ryokichi was one of the first people who joined the server. He had appeared just before I had appeared, and so Nova loved to consider Ryokichi as my "grandpa" of sorts. That does make sense though. Ryokichi was always the laidback one in the server. He listened patiently to what someone had to say and always provided input to a question or issue. He was someone whom others respected despite not always being on most of the time (Nova said that Ryokichi was more of an outdoor person).

I stood up from my seat to meet the two girls' faces. I held my hand out and eyed the closest one to my face. She was the one who was wearing the Edgar Allen Poe shirt. "Hello, my name is Archie, and you are?"

The dark blonde-haired girl bowed her head down politely, answering, "Shizuna Hitokokaji, Ultimate Ghostwriter… is that all you want?"

I dropped my hand, a bit awkward from how Shizuna didn't take it. I nodded my head. "It's very nice to meet you."

Shizuna sighed to herself, playing with her cape jacket. She looked left and right before turning back to me. "... I'll go order hot cocoa if you don't mind."

"Uh, yeah."

I watched Shizuna who left the table to stay behind the line. She was currently looking through the menu, eyes squinted.

Shizuna was one of the first people who joined the server, if not after a few others after Nova and Calla. She was a regular at the server and found peace within this server. She was comfortable in the server and always vented out her feelings towards what happened in her life, always looking for feedback from people such as Aki and Giselle. She wasn't someone who necessarily desired positivity and found the constant happiness from a few people tiresome, but she respected it.

I knew that Shizuna wasn't a bad person. I had a few private talks with her as well regarding her passion for reading and desire to publicize books, and I could tell that she was a kind person. I assumed, right now, that she was just shy to talk to us. Talking online is different than talking in real life after all.

My focus now turned to the last of the trio. I threw on a quick, friendly smile and placed my hand out. "If you didn't already hear, I'm Archie. It's nice to meet-"

I didn't have the time to finish my sentence. I suddenly found myself thrown into a warm embrace.

"It is a pleasure to see you!" the auburn girl greeted. Her embrace around me was tight. "My name is Kudosu Kudou, and I am the Ultimate Actuary if you didn't know."

She released her embrace around me as I chuckled. I was staring at the actuary with a warm smile. "That's nice to know."

Kudosu nodded her head. She turned to the others and opened her arms out, ready to throw everyone else into a hug.

Nova jumped out of her seat and literally squealed. "Aww, that's so sweet of you! Nice to meet you Kudosu!"

Most of the people in our group were more than willing to embrace Kudosu. Nova and Calla were especially excited and touched to have the actuary hug them, and a few others such as Konstantin or Giselle were hesitant, but embraced her. Ryokichi rejected her attempt because she had already hugged him, and Sujin was more than willing to reject her completely and bluntly.

I noticed that once Aki introduced herself to Kudosu, the actuary literally clung onto her like glue. This affectionate gesture had baffled the judge, but Aki slowly became more willing to have those arms around her.

Kudosu and Aki were the closest to one another. The moment they met each other online they became inseparable. It was strange to even say that. I remembered how Aki was always the person who would calm arguments and keep the server steady while Kudosu was the opposite (which is why, I had to admit, her appearance had surprised me. I never expected her to look so mature).

Kudosu was a troll, and that definition had fitted her entire persona to a T. She would never let Petra take a break whenever she bested her in a game, and she especially had great enjoyment in torturing Sujin by always mocking him with continuous spams of emojis or yelling. She was the type who would cause discord among the group, and was proud of it.

That was why it was strange to see Aki, someone who hated disturbance, and Kudosu, the epitome of disturbance, to be close to one another.

 _Maybe they ended up becoming close after messaging each other privately or something?_

Elijah crossed his arms and looked at Kudosu, saying, "I'm surprised you're wearing something like that. Isn't your outfit a bit too gaudy?"

Kudosu's eyes widened. She immediately sulked. "I knew I should've gone for the leopard print instead…"

"Ouch!" The piercer winced as Petra jabbed in the thigh. "Sorry. I was just asking… ow…"

Konstantin laughed nervously, scratching his head. "Er… I think i-it looks n-n-nice on you, Kudosu…"

"Oh, is that so?" The auburn-haired girl was shocked. She slowly looked at the butcher and exclaimed, "That is very kind of you!"

The butcher blushed instantaneously. He looked away from the girl.

"I'm back."

Shizuna came back after a few minutes with hot cocoa in hand. She was pleased with her order. It was obvious since I noticed the subtle smile on her lips as she sipped into her drink. I was a bit saddened that she was sitting away from us, but I really didn't want to bother her. I'm sure she didn't want to be bothered as well.

"How many people are left?" I asked. I decided to see who else we were missing, or, at least how many people were left before we could officially start our get-together.

Nova frowned. She had to stand up from her seat and count. "Er… One… two… Uhh, I think… Oh! Got it! Five people left!"

"Not bad," Sujin sneered, "I thought there would be more people late."

The cheerleader laughed at this, throwing an arm around the vet who was now flustered. "You're such a grumpy cat~ Don't worry, don't worry! They'll be here soon, so don't be so impatient!"

Sujin's face turned red. "I-I'm not! You're imagining things!"

Petra stretched her arms out and yawned. "Erm… maybe we should hold another arm wrestling contest…?"

Kudosu's eyes widened. "'Another'? You held one without me?"

I laughed nervously, "Uh, how about we not…?"

Ryokichi shrugged as Oliver murmured something to him. The untitled ultimate chuckled and replied, "I mean, I think it's good entertainment here."

"Let's do it!" Calla cried and threw her arms out. "I'm ready for another round!"

I noticed that Shizuna looked displeased with this commotion, eyes glaring daggers at us (or me, I wouldn't know. Maybe she thought that I would stop them).

Before anyone had a chance to initiate the match, the door opened again.

The person who came into the cafe was a boy with scruffy blond hair and large green eyes. He was slightly tanned and retained a slim figure despite the obvious muscle on his body. Anyways, his scruffy blond hair was tied into a short ponytail and his face was sharp. To me, he was someone who looked professional and mature.

However, what the boy was wearing gave a different story. His clothing was reminiscent of a delinquent. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt with red slash designs, then his lower half containing white jeans and black boots. There were accessories on him that included a red and white jacket that was tied around his waist, and two piercings only on his right ear. His attire, in contrast to his appearance, made me think of him as a delinquent.

His appearance (nonetheless slightly tall figure) intimidated a lot of the customers inside of the room. He was observing the cafe for a while before his attention turned to us. Suddenly, that frown and sharp expression of his turned into a bright happy smile.

"Hey!" He cried out, dashing over to our table. He was waving his hands around. "I'm guessing you guys are here for the real life gathering, right?"

Nova smiled and replied with a chirpy, "Yup! Welcome!"

"Nice!" The blonde pumped his fists into his stomach. "My name's Saburo Kurosawa, Ultimate Interrogator at your service! What's up!"

"Oh! Saburo!" Nova's eyes widened. Her pink hair bounced in place as she stood up to shake his hands. "It's nice to meet you!"

Saburo nodded. "Yep, nice to meet you too! I see we're in some old-fashioned cafe here. Cozy and all that sort of thing."

"I like how the cafe's mainly filled with us in here," Oliver joked, poking at Saburo who smiled at him.

Saburo was one of the people who came after I joined. He joined for the sole purpose of wanting to befriend us and interact with people positively, and after a few hours talking to us (especially to Nova, who, in my opinion, was always a great host) he was content staying with us. He stayed on the server to befriend us and keep the atmosphere positive.

We all introduced ourselves with the investigator.

"Wow, it's nice to meet you all!" the blonde exclaimed, completely excited. "Did you guys all bought something already? I forgot to bring my wallet, ha…"

"Are you serious?" Ryokichi's eyes widened. "Dude, are you on drugs or something?"

"Of course not!" Saburo cried. He crossed his arms and continued, "I was planning to get money from my bank account, so I didn't bring any physical money with me."

Oliver laughed and pulled back his messy locks of brown hair. "It's cool, it's cool! I'll tip ya!"

Saburo frowned. "No way."

"Yes way!" the boomerang specialist called back, his grin wide. He winked at the blonde and reached into his pocket. He took out his leather wallet and waved it at Saburo. "I'll treat you."

Saburo shook his head. "Nah, I really don't need it! I'm not that thirsty anyways."

Oliver sighed, asking, "Why are you so reluctant, bro? It's just a few dollars, right?"

"How about I buy some with him then?"

Oliver and Saburo looked at one another. They were baffled. They wondered who had spoke before they looked back, seeing a foreign face in front of them. They jumped.

"Woah!" the boomerang specialist cried out. "Do we know you, man?"

The person who had startled the duo was a boy with a pale complexion and thin figure. He had brown hair that is in a side part and clean features which I can describe as fitting for someone who was a "pretty boy". What didn't help was that the boy was wearing a sharp black suit with a white under shirt and a gold-colored tie. After that, he was also wearing black Oxfords.

The brunette laughed as he noticed the bewilderment on Oliver and Saburo's faces. "Sorry about that," he apologized, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Naaah…" Oliver scratched his head. "No worries."

"I'm guessing you're part of us?" Saburo asked. He was observing the boy's attire.

"Y-Yeah!" The brunette's eyes lit up instantly. He shifted his attention to where I and the others were, head bowed. "It is a pleasure to meet you all, you are in the presence of the one named Zenjiro Oshiro. I am the Ultimate Stand-Up Comedian."

"Oooh, so you're Zenjiro!" Oliver immediately jumped at the introduction. His smile was wide and his hands were thrown to the air. "Nice to meet you dude!"

Zenjiro smiled. "And who are you, may I ask?"

The boy took out his boomerang and pointed it at the comedian. "Oliver, boomerang specialist at your hand!"

"Oh, I see!" the comedian cried, voice loud for all of us to hear. "It is nice to finally meet you!"

Saburo laughed as he joined the duo in cheering.

I watched with the others on this sight. I noticed that Nova was smiling at the scene ahead of her. The cheerleader was whispering to Calla who was giggling. They were more than happy to see online friends uniting in real life.

It was something I enjoyed seeing as well.

Anyways, Zenjiro was one of the people who came into the server before me. The moment he and I introduced ourselves I knew Zenjiro was a person with a sense of humor. He was the one who always made jokes and laughed with the others during calls. He was the type of person who would cheer up someone by just being there, and although he can be annoying to some people, he was always welcomed into the chat for how kind of a person he was.

"Anyhow, my good sir," Zenjiro motioned to Saburo, "Let us make haste and buy you a cup of coffee!"

"Woah, s-seriously?" Saburo was blushing and scratching his head. "Er… Fine. T-thanks man."

I watched Zenjiro leaving to buy a drink alongside Saburo and Oliver. Those three were close friends with one another, so I wasn't surprised to see them interacting with each other the moment they met in real life. They all had a sense of humor and extrovertedness that made them click.

"So, where's the hotel we're going to be staying at?" Ryokichi asked, looking at me.

I smiled. It wasn't a surprise that he was looking at me since I was the one who suggested us to meet here.

"Maybe it's nearby," Kudosu suggested. She was smiling at me.

"It is," I answered while chuckling. "It's called Hotel Paradise."

"Ooh, it sounds like a nice place." Calla leaned towards me. "Have you been there before?"

I laughed. "I haven't been there myself, but one of my clients did and he always told me positive stories about the place. The place has a lot of good food, room service… urm, just basically what you'd expect from a highly visited and top hotels in the nation."

"I love five-star hotels!" Nova clapped her hands. "I can't wait to go there and rest."

"Same," Konstantin commented shyly, "I-I can't wait."

A few minutes passed. Saburo and the others have ordered their drinks and came back to our table. The trio of best friends were now laughing and pulling stunts. They were joking with us to the point of making Nova choke on her drink and earning a snort from Aki and Shizuna.

About Shizuna, I had tried to call her over to sit closer to us, but she rejected me instantly. She wasn't one to speak to others. She was a shy and quiet person. I knew that she didn't mean any harm and probably enjoyed her quiet time more than being around a crowd, but I can't help but worry about her.

The door opened again and we immediately turned our heads over to check who it was.

The person who entered into the cafe was a pale, short girl with a pear-shaped figure, looking agile and averagely muscle toned to me in terms of body. She had an angular face with a pointy chin, upturned nose, peach colored lips, and faint brown freckles at her cheeks. Her eyes were light blue and doe-shaped which gave her an innocent and almost childish appearance. Though I'm not much of a makeup person, I could tell she was wearing mascara on her eyes (her eyes were behind brown rectangular-rimmed glasses though, but I was sure she had mascara on). Her hair was blonde and were hang in two loose pigtails that reached past her axilla. What accompanied this was her neatly cut fringe which hung to the right side of her face. The left side of her hair was clipped with a green snake hairclip, and her pigtails with two bobbles decorated with a small magenta flower.

Other than that, the girl was wearing a three quarter lengthed v-neck shirt which bore a pale pink and light gray horizontal striped pattern. Over that was a brown vest shirt which contained a cross stitch embroidery along the edges and sleeves that bore the central image of a green spotted snake. On her lower body, the girl was wearing a pair of khaki colored shorts with pockets and a brown leather belt. On her feet were pink socks decorated with fairies and white sneakers secured with green laces. Other than that, she was wearing her green earrings, a charm bracelet dangling from her wrist (which I recognized as mythological symbols), a silver locket etched in Greek symbols, and a silver brooch attached to her vest shirt in the shape of a flying Pegasus. Finally, she was also carrying a small brown leather satchel that had a metallic clasp.

However, the girl's clothing was not the thing that surprised me (and the others for that matter).

What surprised us was the animal that was around her neck.

The girl had a ball python wrapped comfortably around her neck. The python wasn't doing anything to garner suspicion or danger, however the looks on the customers' faces said the opposite.

"AAAH IT'S A SNAKE!"

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

The girl's doe eyes widened. Her face began to redden as she shook her hands about and bowed her head down. Before she could apologize however, she scared at least two or three customers away.

The door swished shut. Murmurs flew throughout the room.

"Why does she have a snake around her neck?" I heard Ryokichi asking us. He popped the bubble gum from his mouth right after asking.

"Hmph, pathetic." Sujin smirked dryly. "They can't even stand looking at something as cute as a snake- h-hey, Elijah, stop!"

Elijah was busy ruffling Sujin's hair and chuckling. "Of course you'd say that."

"I mean…" Giselle lazily looked ahead at the girl and her python. "Snakes are scary, I have to admit."

"I think it is a cute lil' critter though!" Oliver cried out. He looked exasperated at how the customers reacted. "How rude of them!"

"Well!" Zenjiro wagged his fingers to and fro. He was smiling at us easily. "Let's make some snake jokes as well as Monty Python does!"

"You dork," Saburo groaned and shoved the comedian lightly.

"U-uh…" The girl was looking around the cafe, lost. The python around her neck was sleeping peacefully. "Erm…"

"Er…" I turned to Nova. "Should we approach her? Maybe she's here to meet us."

"Right." Nova crossed her arms. "We should go and talk to her then!"

"Hey."

I turned around and found myself staring at the barista from the cash register. I immediately found myself sweating.

 _Oh shit._

"I'm sorry, but I would have to ask you all to leave. You're all causing a ruckus here and the manager is getting annoyed."

I nodded my head quickly. "Yes, yes, of course. Sorry about that."

The barista frowned. "Yes, so please tell everyone else and leave."

"Yes-" I stopped and noticed the barista was looking at the lost girl. "Erm… her as well?"

The barista bobbed her head.

I nervously laughed. "Right…"

The barista left from the table and I tapped onto Nova's shoulder. "Hey, uh, we'll have to go out."

"Wait, really?" Nova's mouth fell agape. "Why?"

I sighed and said, "We're causing a ruckus. We should leave… and her as well."

Nova looked over at the blonde and scratched her head. "Alright then." She clapped her hands loudly and exclaimed, "Alright guys! Let's go outside!"

"Wait, outside?" Aki frowned as locks of red hair brushed against her face. "Why?"

The pink ponytailed girl shook her head. "Don't worry about it! Let's go out right now."

Despite the confusion and worry on everyone's faces, they heeded Nova's words and walked outside. I was happy that Oliver, Saburo, and Zenjiro were able to buy drinks before we were kicked out, though I had to admit I was a bit embarrassed that we were being kicked out.

 _I should've quieted them down before it was too late. Sigh…_

I noticed the python and its owner looking around in bafflement. I remembered what the barista said and walked over to approach the blonde.

"Hello," I began, smiling. "Are you here for the meeting?"

"M-meeting?" The blonde breathed shakily. "Erm… are you from the Ultimates' server?"

"Ah, yeah." I held my hand out. "I'm Archie King, Ultimate Editor. Who are you?"

"Oh, A-Archie!" The girl cried out in shock, though it was more from delight than anything. She was smiling brightly and quickly shook hands with me. "Yes, erm, I'm Lissandra Castellanos, the Ultimate Mythologist. I-It's a huge pleasure to meet you!"

I could've guessed that it was Lissandra from what she was wearing, however my focus was mainly turned on her pet snake that I immediately recognized as Medusa. "I'm surprised you brought her with you. The flight attendants allowed it?"

Lissandra nodded her head joyfully and answered, "Yes, erm, I-I admit that I was a bit nervous during the flight because o-of that! T-They were so kind though, they even fed Medusa here! She's a friendly python a-after all, s-so i-it shouldn't really be a surprise to me that they liked her."

Lissandra, or Lisa for short (as some people, Nova and some others mainly, liked to call her), was one of the people who came into the server after me. Lissandra was a breath of fresh air to the server and was always friendly towards everyone. She was a bit shy, as to be expected, however it was already apparent to us that she was a lover of her talent. She would always incorporate talks about mythologies into her texts, though mainly it would arouse from her talking about Medusa. She was obviously close to Medusa, her pet python, and I've heard more than many times how Medusa was kinder than the 'python sent to kill Leto and her unborn twins Apollo and Artemis'.

"Erm, why is everyone l-leaving though?" Lissandra was pointing to everyone else who had just left the cafe. "D-did something happen? A-ah! Maybe they saw the soul of Thanatos here?"

"No… uh…" I sighed. "We just got kicked out."

"K-kicked out? Oh, was it my fault?" Lissandra's face became overwhelmed in pain and guilt. "I-I'm so sorry about that! I didn't think that Medusa would be s-seen as a hydra…"

"No, you're fine. We were a bit loud before you came in." I placed my hand on the mythologist's shoulder. "Let's go outside and get you acquaintance with the others then."

Lissandra heeded my words and we went outside, meeting the others who were talking just outside the door.

Zenjiro noticed us first. "Oh, you're back."

I nodded and nudged Lissandra to move towards the comedian.

"Hello there!" Zenjiro was officially the first person to greet Lissandra, his smile radianting. "My name is Zenjiro Oshiro, Ultimate Stand-Up Comedian. Who are you?"

The mythologist smiled shyly in return. "Erm, Lissandra, Ultimate Mythologist."

Lissandra introduced herself to the rest of the group, and they in return introduced themselves to her.

"Medusa looks so cool!" I heard Oliver exclaiming from a distance. I noticed that he and Lissandra were now talking to one another in a small conversation.

"The python looks quite interesting," Kudosu mused. She was moving her lips to Aki's ear, whispering something afterwards.

The redhead shrugged, answering out loud, "Depends on your image of a pet."

"I-I am really glad you all think of Medusa in such an enlightening way," Lissandra said, smiling at everyone. "Medusa is as sweet as the fairies."

Petra replied, "I'm glad she's not threatening us, at least."

"Why would she?" Sujin dryly remarked and rolled his eyes. "Lisa's not that stupid of a person to bring a violent python with her."

"Bringing a python could help scare some potential stalkers though," Ryokichi said and chuckled as he popped a bubble.

Giselle sweated. "Uh… no."

Konstantin awkwardly laughed. "I-I-I have to admit I was a bit afraid at first… b-but I'm glad she's so f-friendly."

"S-she is," the mythologist beamed, "Medusa's my closest friend, after all!"

"What about me though?"

Lissandra's doe-shaped eyes widened. Konstantin's eyes widened. Honestly, everyone's eyes widened at the unfamiliar (though it was strangely familiar) voice. We all looked ahead to find a boy walking over towards us.

The boy who was walking over towards us a slightly skinny boy with long, graceful limbs and a medium skin tone. The boy had black, chin-length wavy hair that was swept in a way that made it look intentional. His eyes, on the other hand, were dark brown with his brows being dark and bushy.

Clothing wise, the boy was wearing a dark blue sweater over a pale pink button-up shirt (or so I believed. He only had his collar and rolled up sleeves to look at). He was wearing a plum-colored tie and tight-fitting pants that are darker than his tie. At the bottom he wore brown dress shoes. For accessories he was wearing a DSLR camera hanging around his neck and a pocket-sized notebook in his hand.

Nova didn't need to ask who the person was. The pink-haired girl immediately rushed to the boy and threw her arms out for a hug, exclaiming, "Nice to meet you!"

The boy was more than willing to oblige. He embraced the cheerleader without fail and turned to the group. "Nice to meet you all! Know my name?"

Nova grinned and played along with the boy's game. "Yeah, try and guess who he is!"

I rolled my eyes to myself. There were only two people we had yet to meet, and this boy was one of the two. "You're Hugh Davies, the Ultimate Fashion Designer, right?"

"Ooh!" The boy, Hugh, clapped his hands together. "Ding ding ding! That's correct. You have an active brain there, Archie."

"Oh." I was pleasantly surprised to hear Hugh calling my name out so comfortably. "You know who I am?"

"Obviously." The black-haired boy gave out a hearty laugh while tapping his foot on the ground. "I was the one who made you wear that green turtleneck."

I laughed. "That's right. I'm surprised you remember that though. That was a few weeks ago."

"Oh, puh-lease." Hugh went over to throw an arm around my shoulder. "Why would I ever forget our conversations, Archie? Sweetheart, I would not forget the time you wanted to wear that tasteless sweatshirt of yours either."

"H-hey!" I felt my cheeks turning red. "It was a nice shade of pastel pink…"

Hugh shook his head. "With how brown your hair is, pastel pink does not compliment your hair as much as green does."

Nova giggled from where she stood. "Back to being our usual fashion designer, I see."

The raven released his arm around me and shook his head. "Sorry about that. Ahem, an official 'happy to meet you all' from me. Apologies."

Hugh went on to get himself acquaintance with the rest of the group. I particularly noticed that he was talking longer to Petra and Kudosu, and then I noticed that he was walking over to Shizuna.

 _Typical Hugh._

Hugh was one of the people who came onto the server before me. In fact, he came onto the server about a few days before I came on. He had messaged the server briefly from time to time, however within a month or so he began participating more. He was the one who would joke around with just about anyone and talk to anyone who was online, no matter who they were.

That was one of the reasons why I became closer to him than I was to about anyone else. He always messaged me privately after I had a short fallout between him and I. I expected him to ignore and hate me, but he messaged me daily. We created a bond after that and ever since then we considered ourselves to be close friends.

"Really?" I heard Hugh saying. His dark brown eyes were wide as Shizuna gave him a wry smile. "I thought…"

I was not able to hear much more of their conversation. Intead, I heard our last member greeting us with a wave.

"Yo."

Our last person was a girl. She had a slim build and lightly tanned skin. Her hair was a dark mahogany red color that gradually turned black at the ends and grew to the middle of her back. Her hair was slightly wavy and the bangs were pushed to the right side of her face. Her eyes were amber, however what struck me was that her right eye was a paler shade of amber. It was dull and I particularly noticed the scar cut vertically across from her eye.

Well, other than that, she was wearing a black sleeveless midriff top that said "Vintage" with an image of an old Italian motorbike on it. The top left her belly exposed and I noticed a skull belly button piercing. Over the top was a red, white, and black plaid long-sleeved shirt that was unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. On the bottom she was wearing dark brown short shorts with black tights underneath. Her shoes were black with white laces. For accessories the girl was wearing a pair of red headphones around her neck with a Grim Reaper necklace adorned with a striking red jewel. She also had a small crimson jewel nose piercing, two silver snakebite piercings, small silver and black ring piercings along her ears. Finally, she was wearing a black beanie and a skateboard that had a dark red underside with an image of the Grim Reaper's scythe on it.

That skateboard, however, was what the girl was currently riding on at the moment.

"Hey there!" Nova greeted. She was always the first one to greet and notice a passerby. "I'm guessing you're Reaper?"

"'Sup." Reaper gave the cheerleader a wry smile. "Why're we all outside? Did you guys get kicked out or something?"

Ryokichi chuckled and nodded, saying, "To put it bluntly, yes."

"Hey there." The redhead turned to Ryokichi. "Can I get some gum to eat?"

The mint-haired boy turned away. "Nope."

"Always like that." The girl laughed, amused. "Anyways, I need to formally introduce myself, right? I'm Reaper, Ultimate Skateboarder… that actually should've been obvious, huh? I'm the last person here from what it seems."

"Geez." Calla scratched her head awkwardly. "You're still not going to give us your real name, huh?"

Reaper shook her head, sadly saying, "No offense, but I rather not."

The first time we met Reaper, she insisted on only being called Reaper. She was one of the people who came after me and immediately created a bond with us. She was always the one who helped gave out advice and challenge the competitive people to a game. However, one day, when we revealed our names out to the public, she refused to be called anything except "Reaper". I know we could've easily searched her name up online since Ultimates were worldwide famous, but we had respect for Reaper and decided better against it. She probably didn't know that her name could've easily been searched up.

After Reaper had introduced herself to everyone, Nova clapped her hands together and called us out for attention.

"Alright! Now that we're all here, we can get going to the hotel now!" She then pointed at me. "Archie, lead the way!"

"Wait." Saburo stopped and turned to me. "You had someone call the flight attendants to bring our luggages there, right?"

"I did," I answered. "They all should be there."

Aki sighed. "They better be."

With everyone getting ready to move out, I led us all the way towards the hotel. I was excited for this whole fiasco to begin because I knew we would have fun getting to know each other and partying.

I had planned and reserved an entire place to ourselves tonight. For now, we'll most likely rest for a bit after we reached the hotel.

I can't wait.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello, I am here with a new chapter! I am sorry this took a long while to upload. I had a bit of issues a while ago and I had to solve them before finishing this chapter. Thankfully I'm here, haha. Hopefully this chapter will be enough to make up for how long it took for this story to update.**


	5. Prologue (Part 3)

We finally reached the hotel. I thanked my taxi driver for giving me and a few of my friends (Shizuna, Konstantin, and Giselle) a ride in his car, and paid him. He gave us a gesture of good luck as he drove away.

I looked over my shoulder. Nova and Calla were having a conversation with their own taxi driver, Oliver and Elijah gone out to talk to themselves. The third group (Kudosu, Lisa, Hugh, and Zenjiro) were all talking to their respective taxi driver, and the fourth group (Sujin, Saburo, Aki, Reaper) paid their taxi driver and left. The fifth group, which consisted only of Petra and Ryokichi, were already heading into the hotel.

Konstantin stretched a few muscles. He then rubbed his eyes and murmured quietly, "I'm so tired…"

"I am too," I replied with a chuckle. "Let's head inside and get our bags. The receptionist will give us our keys so we can sleep afterwards."

Shizuna sighed. "Let's just hurry it up."

I watched Shizuna who went ahead into the hotel. I sighed. I hoped that Shizuna will have fun being around us.

I led everyone into the hotel. I walked over to the receptionist desk and waved at the lady, beginning, "Hello. My name is Archie King. I reserved eight rooms and we're ready to get our keys and luggages now, please."

The receptionist instantly smiled at me, welcoming, "Of course! I will get your keys in a second." She looked behind at the board of keys. She scanned through each one before picking up eight individual keys and handed them to me. She said, "Six of the rooms have two beds. Two of them have three. Those are the ones you wanted, right?"

"That's correct," I answered. "Thank you."

"No problem!" she cried. She then grabbed a brochure and opened up the pages. She turned to the map and pointed to the left where I stood. "Your luggages should be right here."

I was content with what the receptionist said, and I turned to the group to relay the message. They followed me down the hallway as I turned left. I headed over to where I found a glass-paneled room, a silver plate saying "Luggage Drop Offs" to be seen. I instantly knew that our luggages would be inside, and I led the group inside the room.

The room was spacious. Similar to the hotel, the colors of the walls were a pastel, light peach color. The ground was covered in red carpet, and there were chandeliers above the ceiling. Although the ceiling was white when I first saw them, inside of the luggage room they were entirely made out of glass. I suspected this was because we were right outside the area, and I was right. I saw a garden and patio right to the back from where I stood, outside.

"This place is really nice," Elijah mused, having rubbed his temples. He gave a kind smile to Petra who was gawking at the sight. He chuckled as he asked the girl, "Haven't been to a hotel like this?"

Petra blushed. She quickly tried to hide the excitement in her clear blue eyes, whining, "S-shut it, Elijah…"

The piercer laughed and ruffled Petra's curly blond hair. "Sorry."

"I-I wonder what else this hotel has," Konstantin mumbled. He was impressed with the sight around him.

Lissandra smiled brightly as she leaned her body forward. She was looking straight at the garden and patio. Medusa, who was coiled around her, hissed at her. "I-I'm really glad I was allowed to bring Medusa in… S-she really likes this place so far."

Hugh smiled and walked over to Lissandra. The wavy-haired boy looked over to Lissandra and winked, saying, "From what I've checked on my phone, I heard there was a greenhouse and swimming pool nearby. Maybe Medusa would love to rest there, sweetheart."

"O-oh, really?" the mythologist's voice was slightly higher than usual. She blinked and looked at Medusa. She nodded her head after a second. "S-sure. I think she'd like that."

The wavy-haired fashion designer curiously stared at the mythologist for a second. His eyes widened and he waved a hand about, crying, "Sweetheart, don't fret, don't fret! I don't mean any ill-intent. I was just thinking about what Medusa would like, not you in a swimsuit."

Lissandra blushed and shook her head, responding instantly, "N-no! T-that's fine, I wasn't thinking of that!"

Hugh laughed. "Of course you weren't."

I watched Lissandra and Hugh talking for a while. They were quite amiable towards one another and I enjoyed seeing that in my eyes. I turned around and looked for my luggages: they were red, I knew that.

I scanned around the area before noticing two red luggages. I walked over to them and noticed the name tags saying, "Archie King". These were my luggages. I smiled and grabbed ahold of the handles. I was about to roll them over to where everybody else were and discuss the roommates for each room, but I bumped into a stranger.

"Oops!" I quickly bowed my head down at the stranger. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to run into you. I wasn't looking."

The stranger, a middle-aged woman, looked at me. She gave me a pair of curious eyes before laughing, shaking her head and saying, "You're fine! I should be the one who's looking out for people. I was just caught up in what I was doing."

I shook my head. I knew I could only be at fault here, and there I said, "No, it's my fault. I apologize for it."

The woman smiled. I noticed she had a small pomeranian puppy in her hands. I immediately thought of Sujin, and sure enough, just when I looked to the side, I saw the vet's silvery eyes glimmering with excitement.

"Well, I'll get going now." The stranger waved at me before she left the room. I saw her going over to her husband and two kids.

It was a cute sight. I wondered what it was like to be a parent. It might sound cliche, but honestly, I wished I could be a father. Maybe one day? I hoped so.

"Pomeranians are really nice critters," Sujin began, speaking to Elijah and Giselle with a small smile (or so I assumed behind the flu mask). "I want to pet her puppy…"

Elijah snorted and ruffled the vet's head, musing, "You're such a devout animal lover."

The vet immediately ducked down and swiped at the piercer's hand, crying, "S-stop ruffling my hair!"

I chuckled and walked over to where the group were. I cleared my throat and began, "Alright, since we have gotten everything we need, I think we need to discuss about who will be in which room."

"Ooh!" Nova threw her arms out, immediately crying, "I'm going to go with Calla!"

Calla jumped and clapped her hands at this. She grabbed Nova's hands and excitedly shook them. "Hehe! We thought of the same thing!"

Reaper snorted amusingly as she looked at the two girls. "I'm not surprised."

I laughed at this and grabbed one of the keys. I eyed the room number before tossing it to Nova who easily caught it. I turned to the group. "Anyone else?"

"Why can't we just randomize it?" Aki asked. The redhead looked curiously at me. "It shouldn't take that long."

I awkwardly smiled and answered, "Any works with me."

"Well, may I make a suggestion?" Zenjiro looked over at me. "Would it be alright if I'm in a group of three? I would love to be with Saburo and Oliver, of course. You have seven keys left too, and two of them are the keys to the larger rooms."

"True." I turned over to the boomerang specialist and interrogator. "Are you two fine with it then?"

Oliver laughed and saluted me, exclaiming, "Of course I am, mate!"

Saburo nodded and replied, "Same with me."

"Alright, then here you go." I threw the key to Zenjiro who caught it easily. I turned to the group again, asking, "Any other suggestions?"

"I'm fine going with anyone," Elijah answered. He looked at me with the same friendly expression he wore.

"Mhm, that's fine." I jiggled the keys in my hand. "Anyone else?"

"Let's just RG it," Elijah suggested.

"Ahem!" Hugh coughed loudly and pointed at me. The boy winked as he said, "You, me, let's share a room, my friend."

I stifled a laugh. "You sure about that? You don't need to if you don't want."

The wavy-haired fashion designer shook his head. "I'm not forcing myself at all. You always act like you're not important to anyone."

"Alright alright, fine." I tossed Hugh one of the keys and turned to the rest. "Should we RG it then? Does anyone else have a request?"

Lissandra shook her head, saying, "I-I do think it is fine if we randomly generated it."

"I think it'll be better if it's RGed anyways!" Kudosu proudly exclaimed, then having continued with, "It's funner that way, in my opinion."

"I'm fine with it…" Konstantin smiled softly.

"I'll do it then," Elijah said, having volunteered. He took out his cellphone and looked up for a website. Once he found it, he typed the rest of the undeclared's names inside, although he first started off with the boys. "Alright, let's see…"

A second passed and the piercer's dark green eyes widened. He cleared his throat and spoke, "Well, I'm with Sujin, leaving Kon with Ryokichi."

"Looks like we're together, Ryokichi," the butcher kindly chuckled, "I hope I won't bother you as your roommate."

Ryokichi shrugged and popped his piece of bubblegum he was chewing, mumbling, "Nah, you're cool bro."

Elijah looked at Sujin. "Are you okay with it?"

"Of course I am," Sujin grumbled, having puffed his cheeks out. "Why are you even asking?"

Saburo pointed over to the vet, giggling, "Pfft, he's embarrassed."

"Errrr anyways, I'll go RG for the girls." Elijah hastened his pace and listed the names of the rest of the girls down. "... Petra is going with Katya, Lissandra and Giselle are together, and that leaves Shizuna, Kudosu, and Aki together. Is that fine?"

"Heh, I'm fine with it!" Kudosu immediately clung onto Aki. She looked over to Shizuna and grinned, having tried to urge her into her clutches.

Giselle yawned, but managed a, "Yeah, that's fine with me."

"M-Medusa and I are fine with it," Lissandra mused. Medusa circled around her neck with a hiss.

Reaper shrugged. "Any works."

Nova threw her hands up and cried, "Well, it's looks like everything's settled! Give out the keys then, Archie."

"Yeah yeah, I know." I chuckled and tossed the keys to each group. Once I threw everything and confirmed they got their designated keys, I grabbed my luggages. "Alright, let's go to our rooms. There's a few hours left before the party begins."

"I want to look around for a bit," Calla admitted. "I wanna explore the place!"

Nova hopped over to Calla's side and grinned. "I'll join you! I wonder if they have a gymnastics area?"

Zenjiro laughed heartily and folded his arms, saying confidently, "This hotel is such a Brit inn."

"Oh my god!" Oliver slapped Zenjiro lightly on the arm, in-between the spectrum of disgust and laughter.

Aki snorted. "Because we're in an English hotel. I got it."

"Oh, is that what it means?" Konstantin laughed nervously. "Oops, I didn't get it at first sorry…"

The stand up comedian pointed at the butcher, having said, "Don't worry. Since we're in a hotel, I know each one of us are inn dependent and have our own sense of humor."

Ryokichi rolled his blue eyes and groaned, "You're a dork."

Petra looked over to Elijah and grabbed at his shirt, mumbling, "Do you want to see if there's a game room…?"

"Yeah, sure," the piercer answered. "Why not."

"Looks like everyone wants to look around the place for a bit," Hugh mused.

Nova and Calla talked to each other before they looked at me. The cheerleader smiled widely and said, "We'll go out for a bit."

"That's fine," I replied. I watched the pair of best friends leave. Slowly, everyone soon dispersed which left me with a couple of people. I grabbed ahold of my luggages and walked towards the door.

"Huh? Hey!" Hugh quickly grabbed his bags and waved his hand, calling out to me while running, "Archie, wait for me!"

I rolled my eyes playfully and smiled over to the fashion designer. "Oh, right. I forgot you had the key."

"Yeah, that's obvious!" the wavy-haired boy laughed. He swung the key in his hand and mused, "Are we going to the room now?"

"I want to rest for a while." I eyed the black-haired fashion designer, having asked next, "How about you?"

"I'll go rest for a bit as well then." Hugh grinned and swung the key around in his hand. "I don't want to leave you alone."

I nodded and rolled my luggages out. Hugh walked to my left. He was smiling at me and whistled a sweet tune. I pressed the button on the elevator and waited.

I looked over to Hugh who grabbed the camera that hung around his neck. He was fiddling with it, and I was interested. "Are you planning to take pictures at the party?"

"Yeah, I feel like everyone will be asking me anyways." Hugh chuckled as he brought the camera to his eye. He flashed the camera at me and brought it back down. He had took a picture of me, I assumed. "Great, the settings are wack again…"

The elevator door opened, and we went inside. I clicked onto the button that brought us to the fifth floor, out of twelve if I remembered correctly. There was a rumble underneath my feet before the elevator slowly rose.

"So," I began, "What has been happening with you recently?"

"Oh, nothing much."

I never noticed this before, but ever since I became a little bit closer to Hugh I noticed he liked to avoid speaking about his personal life. I thought this was because of privacy over in the chatroom, but I never expected him to act the same in real life. Maybe I was being selfish.

"How about you though, sweetheart?"

Like always, Hugh would instead ask me about my life.

"It's nothing special," I answered. "I recently set up a contract with a client. She's only fourteen, and she's already publishing her book in public."

"Really?" the wavy-haired boy gasped. "What's her name- er, pen name?"

"Mikrokosmos. She's really into Greek mythology and history." I felt my lips curling to a smile. "The book she's publishing is a Young Adult one. It's really good from what her parents and my boss told me."

Hugh smiled as he fiddled with his dark blue sweater's sleeves. "A shining star. Her parents must be proud."

"Yeah."

The elevator door opened, and we stopped at the fifth floor. I rolled my luggages out and led Hugh over to our room. It was a polished and wooden door, a keyhole near the doorknob. I grabbed the key from Hugh and unlocked the door. We walked inside and rolled the luggages.

I looked inside of the room. I noticed the two bedrooms were large, single-sized which was almost close to a double. The blankets which covered the white bedsheets were warm brown. The pillows were a mixture of white and black, and the bed frame was dark redwood.

The walls were beige and the ceiling was white. Between where the beds were was a painting of a forest. There was a lamp which wasn't turned on that stood on dark wooden cabinet. Other things I noted were the closet to my and Hugh's side, the bathroom door which was a bit opened (so I saw that the shower room was actually separate from the toilet and sink; it was big and I saw that it could act as both a bathtub and hot tub too), the refrigerator close to the closet, and the windows which was covered by red curtains.

It was a normal hotel room that was bigger than the average, but it was enough for me. I was comfortable, and that was my number one priority.

Hugh rolled his luggages into the room. He placed them to the left side before he sat down on the bed. "Geez, I feel like jet lag is getting to my head now. Tsk, tsk, Hugh."

I closed the door behind me and rolled my luggages to the right. I sat down on my assumed bed and noticed how tired I was. I yawned and stretched my arms out. Strangely, I felt stiff; I hadn't noticed it before.

"I agree," the fashion designer said. He was smiling at me, continuing, "I admit I am a bit tired as well. It's shocking everyone else has the energy to explore this place."

"Yeah." I kicked off my shoes and laid down. "I feel like taking a nap, to be honest."

Hugh laughed. "I don't have a problem with that, sweetheart."

I nodded and looked at the ceiling. I stared at it for awhile before something ran through my head. I sighed and asked, "Do you think Shizuna's doing well?"

The fashion designer chuckled. "You're worried about her?"

"I know she came here because she wants to see us, but she's not close to anyone," I admitted, "Nova and Calla are best friends; Zenjiro, Saburo, and Oliver are close; Petra and Sujin are both close to Elijah; and there's Ryokichi and Reaper, and so many more. I'm just worried Shizuna's going to be alone."

"That's sweet of you. No wonder why I think bright colors suit you." Hugh turned to look at me with his dark brown irises. He smiled and said, "I know you always try to talk to her online, so you should try talking to her during the party. I'm sure the sweetheart is shy to speak to anyone. She looks cold, but is warm as the sunshine underneath."

"I always feel like I'm bothering her though," I replied. "She likes to be alone most of the time."

"You always worry that you're annoying everyone though," the wavy-haired boy mused. He had a point. I always tended to prioritize everyone over myself, and to an extent, to my friends. "Just try approaching her. I'm sure she's just lonely inside."

"Yeah, you have a point," I answered, "I am worried about her."

Hugh shrugged and flipped out his phone. He held it close and hummed, "Nova and Calla sent pictures in the chat. Nice."

"What are they about?"

The wavy-haired fashion designer laughed and answered, "The sweethearts just took selfies of themselves around the hotel. They said the backyard outside is really nice."

"Yeah, that's what my clients told me too."

I smiled. I remembered what my clients had said about this hotel. The hotel were exquisite in their design, but devotedly eco friendly. With how pollution was corrupting the air, I felt admiration for this hotel. I do have to admit it was part of the reason why I chose this hotel as our hangout spot.

"Ooh, Petra and Elijah found the game room." Hugh had continued to read the chat. He was invested in it and it was obvious when he said, "It looks like Petra challenged Elijah to a game of ping pong. Good luck to him!"

I rolled my eyes and said playfully, "You're on your phone already?"

"Shush." Hugh rolled his eyes. "I thought you were going to take a nap, Archie."

I felt my cheeks becoming pink. "I-I will!"

I saw Hugh grinning at me and I threw a pillow straight at his face. It landed on his face perfectly and I turned to the wall. I heard the faint sound of the phone dropping to the ground. I immediately ignored what he was saying and closed my eyes.

I had a dream about introducing my family to my friends. They were happy as they met each other. It was a happy dream.

I eventually woke up, and three or so hours had passed.

"Oh, Archie." Hugh was brushing his wavy hair. He then made sure the cuffs on his sleeves were even to each other. He turned to me and smiled. He said, "It's almost time for the party. I'm surprised you slept so much."

I rubbed my crusty eyes and yawned. I groggily hopped down and asked, "It's almost time already?"

Hugh nodded. "Yeah, some people are there already."

I scratched the back of my head. I figured I would have slept for awhile, but not for this long. "I guess we should go there then."

Hugh was checking the settings on his camera and hummed, "Mhm."

I smiled and asked, "You're getting ready to take pictures?"

Hugh nodded. "Yeah, of course. I'm not here with a camera for no reason, Archie."

"Good point," I mused, laughing. "Let's just go then."

Hugh smiled and we went outside. We talked for awhile before we reached the reservation room. There, I found Saburo who was walking with Zenjiro and Oliver. They were about to head into the reservation room, but the interrogator noticed me and Hugh. He waved at us and got his friends' attention.

"Hello!" the scruffy-haired boy greeted. "Nice to see you two here."

I nodded. "Nice to see you again."

"Hello, Archie! Hugh!" Oliver folded his arms and grinned widely at us. "Are you ready to party?"

Hugh pointed the camera at the boomerang specialist and his friends. "Say cheese!"

Click! Hugh took a picture and Zenjiro curiously walked over to his side, asking, "That was sudden. Well, how does it look?"

The wavy-haired boy pressed into the settings and viewed it. It allowed Zenjiro and the other two to look at the photo. Hugh smiled victoriously as he looked at the screen. "I think I took a really good one!"

"Wooooah…" Oliver was looking at the photo with wide eyes. "That looks nice."

I watched the group for awhile before I realized Hugh was going to take more photos. Since I didn't want to intrude into the group of friends' photoshoot, I went straight into the reservation room.

The spacious room was covered in party decorations and white tablecloth covered tables. There were two long tables which spread out to the corner from my left. There were trays of food, desserts, and drinks there.

I noticed most of us were inside of the room presently. Nova and Calla were already in their seats. The two girls were laughing and gossiping. They were also in a seat with Aki and Lissandra, and so I realized that the group were talking together and making small talk.

Sujin was walking over to a table where Giselle, Ryokichi, and Reaper were. He had two plates of food in hand, and he passed it over to Giselle who was half-asleep. Ryokichi mouthed something to Reaper who snickered. I noticed that Sujin's face became red instantly and he threw a napkin straight at the unknown Ultimate's face. I quickly looked away.

Petra and Elijah were together, as always. The curly blonde was listening to the piercer speak. Petra's eyes glowed, and so I assumed it was something about either the Internet or a game.

Everyone else were outside taking pictures (Hugh, Oliver, Saburo, and Zenjiro). However, I noticed Shizuna was alone over to the long tables. I remembered what Hugh had told me. My cheeks had become red, and I now wondered if I even had the courage to talk to her.

 _But where would that desire to talk to Shizuna lie if you ignore the chance?_ I asked myself this, and gulped. I had to gain the courage to talk to her. As someone who was always afraid to speak up and always let people do the talking for me, this was holding me back. I hated it.

I shook my head. I didn't want to back down now. I counted myself to three and immediately walked over to Shizuna. My feet were a bit shaky, I knew, but I found myself near her proximity within two or so seconds.

The ghostwriter was grabbing two or four egg rolls, I can't count. She looked over to me and her dark purple eyes slightly widened. She quickly maintained her composure as she grabbed the egg rolls and put them on her plate. "Do you need anything?"

I found myself awkwardly laughing. "Well… uh, how are you?"

"I'm fine. Don't bother me." Shizuna glared at me and coldly brushed me off.

I was useless as I watched her leaving to take a seat faraway from the group. I sighed and scratched my head. _Goddamnit._

"Oh, hello there, Archie."

Konstantin and Kudosu were walking over to me. They had recently walked into the room together and were getting their food now, I concluded. I smiled at them.

"You looked like you were busy," Kudosu began. She folded her arms and grinned. "How was your tête-à-tête with Shizuna?"

I politely replied, "It was small talk. It's nothing special."

The actuary frowned now. She leaned closer to me. Her auburn hair swayed to her movements. "Hm…"

Konstantin laughed awkwardly and said, "Please don't be bothered. I… I hope you're doing well."

"Ah, yeah." I nodded. "I'm doing well, thank you for asking."

Kudosu chuckled and proudly recoiled back. "It looks like everyone's here. Well, sans Hugh and the others since they're still taking pictures."

"They do look like they're having fun," the butcher mused as he rubbed his thick silver chained necklace.

"How long do you think they'll take?" the actuary asked. She rested her head on Konstantin's arm. "I do want to take some pictures too with the others."

The tall boy's face became pink. He stuttered, "P-probably awhile…?"

I sighed as I watched the duo. Kudosu was always an affectionate person, however she never realized this. I'm not surprised Konstantin would act flustered. The butcher was a polite and natural soft person. Kudosu was close to alot of people too, I realized. Despite being the closest to Aki and amiable with Nova and Calla, Konstantin did interested her. I found the dynamic cute, in a way.

While I thought about that, I saw Hugh and the others finally entering the room. Everyone was inside now. This grabbed Kudosu and Konstantin's attention, and I watched Kudosu dragging Konstantin to Hugh and his camera.

I wanted to get some food now. I grabbed a plate and began to look through the trays. There were egg rolls, fried rice, meat patties and hamburger buns, barbeque, and so much more. My stomach grumbled, and I eagerly (but courteously) grabbed what I wanted.

While I grabbed my food, I heard Nova's voice over the speakers. I looked back and found the cheerleader with a mic in hand. The projector behind her was wide, and I saw that someone turned on the television to karaoke.

"Anyone who wants to do karaoke come up!" Nova then pumped a fist up. Her ponytail bounced. "I'm going to go first though!"

"Ooh, Nova, Nova! Over here!" Oliver waved his hands and jumped from his seat. "You should sing a French song!"

Saburo looked at the boomerang specialist and chuckled. "Do you even know any to recommend her?"

Nova grinned at Oliver. I saw her going over the list of songs before being content with one. A tune played, and the cheerleader cheerfully began to sing (with Calla in the background harmonizing with her).

I grabbed my plate and walked over to a table where Hugh was. He was waving me over there. I smiled and took my seat next to him. Konstantin and Kudosu were in their seats around the table.

"Nova's not that bad," the fashion designer commented. He was snapping pics of the pink-haired girl. "I wonder how many of us have angelic voices?"

Kudosu smirked and nudged at Konstantin's arm. "You should go next."

"N-no, I'm fine," Konstantin nervously laughed.

I ate my food and silently watched the karaoke scene. Nova and Calla sang a bountiful amount of songs (including Disney songs, unsurprisingly), and other people joined in afterwards. Oliver wasn't shy to sing a song as well as Zenjiro and Saburo. Kudosu ran in to sing a song afterwards, and with enough egging and urging, Aki sang on the stage as well.

Hugh took plenty of pictures. He was currently looking through them with Konstantin and Kudosu viewing them too. Although I would've looked through the pictures with them, I was more worried about Shizuna.

I knew she liked us to the extent of going on vacation with us, but I really hated how she was alone. A few people felt the same way as me. Kudosu immediately tried to bring Shizuna to our table after awhile, but the ghostwriter never budged. Elijah talked to Shizuna for awhile as well, and the best friends Nova and Calla tried as well.

I wasn't sure what to do. Hugh eventually told me to calm down and relax, but that made things worse. I was sat in my seat pondering now, and sighing constantly from worry. I even thought about texting Shizuna from where I sat, and immediately after that I thought it was stupid.

The next show started, and Nova declared it as the "Zenjiro comedy show". I saw Saburo and Oliver screaming, "ZENJIRO!" in their loudest voices ever. Zenjiro was on the stage and grinning with the mic in hand.

"Hello, everyone!" Zenjiro greeted. "Welcome to the Zenjiro Oshiro comedy show! I hope you're having a fantastic time! Especially you, Ryokichi, you fruity friend of mine. You look like a fine-apple today!"

Ryokichi reeled his body back and groaned, "Oh my god."

"You're fruity, huh," Reaper teased and smirked as she eyed the mint green-haired boy. "Zenjiro's soy into you."

Ryokichi stood up from his seat. "Nope, I'm leaving, bye." And he left to the edge of the room.

As this was going on, I felt something was off inside of the room. I smelled something, but I couldn't point out what it was. It smelled like gas, but at the same time it smelled like poison? I wasn't sure, but I ignored it for the moment.

I was going to continue ignoring it, but Kudosu immediately stood up from her seat and slammed her balled fists against the table.

Everything went silent. Zenjiro awkwardly scratched his head and asked, "Uhh, do you not like my jokes? I was just getting started…"

"No, no, not that!" the actuary exclaimed. "There's something wrong here."

"Something wrong?" Aki calmly got off from her seat and walked to the auburn-haired friend. "What are you talking about?"

Lissandra gasped suddenly. I looked over to the mythologist. Medusa was hissing alot and she was overwhelmingly covered in cold sweat. "W-what's wrong, Medusa? P-please calm down! I-it's not the end of the world…?!"

Red lights flashed. The alarms sounded.

"W-what's happening?" Petra gasped and immediately clung into Elijah's shirt. "I don't like this…"

Giselle yawned and adjusted herself in her chair. "Is something going on?"

"Hey, guys!" Nova fiercely looked at the group, silencing them. She took a deep breath, calming herself down, then yelled out, "Everyone stay in here and calm down! I'm sure this is nothing to worry about!"

"I don't smell anything burning," Elijah commented softly.

Konstantin gulped. He was clutching the necklace around his neck. "Maybe it's coming from the outside?"

Hugh stomped his way over to the door. He wrapped his hand with his sleeve and grabbed the handle. He tried to pry it open, but it ceased to work. He frowned. He pounded into the door, but it ceased to work too. "I think the door's jammed!"

"Wow, great." Sujin sarcastically folded his arms. "I guess we're going to die."

Calla gasped. "Sujin!"

I looked over to the ghostwriter. I heard Shizuna murmur under her breath, "Shit."

I gulped. I wanted to walk over to Shizuna and ask if she was fine, but that smell began to become noticeable not only to me, but to everyone else. I saw people covering their nostrils and coughing.

"What the fuck is this smell?" Reaper asked and gagged. "I-it smells like gas!"

Petra was teary. "Are we going to die?"

"I am not dying in here!" Saburo rushed over to the door and began kicking at it. "Let us out, dammit!"

Hugh and Saburo continued to pound against the door, but it never budged.

"Shit!"

Konstantin was now tightly clenching into his chained necklace and crying to himself, "Mother…"

"Hey, let's calm down!" Nova was desperately trying to bring order into the room. "Just stay calm and-"

The cheerleader fell from the ground and fainted.

"Nova!" Calla rushed over to Nova's side and hugged her tightly. "Nova, wake up! Please! This isn't the time to play games- Uugh, this smell is choking me…"

Calla slowly dropped and fainted.

Everyone began to drop one by one. My heart sank when I saw Calla calling out for her best friend, and it continued to sink when everyone began to fall. Saburo and Hugh fell silent after pounding on the door continuously. Zenjiro looked desperate before he fell and Oliver eventually fell after trying to reach at Saburo. Reaper had fainted when she tried to go for the door. Ryokichi fainted rather silently, and Sujin had tried to cover Giselle's face with his hand before they fell. Petra was hugging Elijah tightly, and Konstantin fell after begging for his mother. Kudosu and Aki fell together, and Lissandra held onto Medusa before fainting.

I fell to the floor. I saw Shizuna fainting with her eyes closed, and I reached a weak hand out to her. My head was spinning, and I regretted everything.

 _Please, God, let me try to make things right and not be such a coward anymore._ I was never able to speak to Shizuna, and I hated it so much. If there was a second chance out, then please give it to me.

I blacked out.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello, I am here, finally! It took me so long to get this chapter out when it shouldn't take that long. I am very sorry, and I can only hope I will be faster with these updates. Thank you for your patience. It's a blessing to be with such patient people like you are.**


End file.
